Biden to Tout Government Investing $8.5 Billion in Intel’s Computer Chip Plants in Four States
Washington — The Biden administration has reached an agreement to provide Intel with up to $8.5 billion in direct funding and $11 billion in loans for computer chip plants in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon. President Joe Biden plans to talk up the investment on Wednesday as he visits Intel's campus in Chandler, Arizona, which could be a decisive swing state in November’s election. He has often said that not enough voters know about his economic policies and suggested that more would support him if they did know. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the deal reached through her department would put the United States in a position to produce 20% of the world's most advanced chips by 2030, up from the current level of zero. The United States designs advanced…
Q&A: TikTok Owner Is Essentially ‘Subsidiary’ of China’s Communist Party, US Lawmaker Says
washington — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill March 13 that, if enacted into law, would give ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the TikTok social media app, 180 days to divest its U.S. assets or face a ban over concerns about national security, including Beijing's ability to access Americans' private information through the company ByteDance denies it would provide such private data to the Chinese government, despite reports indicating such information could be at risk. VOA sat down on the day the bill passed with Republican Representative Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on state, foreign operations and related programs, and co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, to hear why he supported the bill and why he's calling for faster military support for Taiwan, the self-ruled…
US Supreme Court Examines Government Efforts to Curb Online Misinformation
Washington — The US Supreme Court was hearing arguments on Monday in a social media case involving free speech rights and government efforts to curb misinformation online. The case stems from a lawsuit brought by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, who allege that government officials went too far in their efforts to get platforms to combat vaccine and election misinformation. A lower court last year restricted some top officials and agencies of President Joe Biden's administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content. The ruling was a win for conservative advocates who allege that the government pressured or colluded with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter to censor right-leaning content under the guise of fighting misinformation. The order applied to a slew of…
Back to the Moon – Part 1
After the Apollo program ended, the US took a long hiatus from lunar exploration. What happened during this time, and what has NASA been doing? This documentary by the Voice of America's Russian service explores the multiple attempts to return to the Moon, the space developments that laid the foundation for future concepts, and the birth of the Artemis lunar program. ...
US Sanctions Network Smuggling American Tech to Iran’s Central Bank
Washington — The U.S. Treasury Department unveiled sanctions against a network of companies and individuals for facilitating illegal technology transfers from dozens of U.S. firms to Iranian entities, including the country's central bank. The sanctions relate to Informatics Services Corporation (ISC), the technology arm of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), the Treasury Department said in a statement Friday. It also sanctioned a number of alleged ISC subsidiaries and front companies based in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, and three individuals allegedly linked to them including Pouria Mirdamadi, a French-Iranian dual national. Brian Nelson, the U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said the CBI "has played a critical role" in providing financial support to Lebanon's Hezbollah and the foreign arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, known as…
US Senate Considers Bill That Could Ban TikTok in United States
The White House is urging senators to quickly begin considering a bill that would address national security concerns related to the social media app TikTok. The House approved the measure earlier this week. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson reports. Camera: Saqib Ul Islam. ...
World’s Largest Drone Maker Expands in US Amid Rights Abuse Allegations
washington — Chinese drone maker DJI is expanding in the U.S. with its first flagship store in New York City amid allegations of links to human rights abuses and ties to China’s military. DJI’s “first concept” North American store on New York’s Fifth Avenue welcomes customers into a futuristic, minimalist space to shop. The company describes itself on its website as “the world's leader in civil drones and creative camera technology.” "We continue to see growing consumer demand throughout North America as we expand our consumer product portfolio," said Christina Zhang, senior director of corporate strategy at DJI. Headquartered in Shenzhen, China, the company was founded in 2006. DJI, also known as Da Jiang Innovations, has become the world’s largest drone maker, having achieved global dominance in less than 20 years.…
Spacex Hoping to Launch Starship Farther in 3rd Test Flight
BOCA CHICA, Texas — SpaceX's Starship, a futuristic vehicle designed to eventually carry astronauts to the moon and beyond, was poised for a third uncrewed test launch Thursday that Elon Musk's company hopes will carry it farther than before, even if it ends up exploding once again in flight. The spacecraft, mounted atop its towering Super Heavy rocket booster, was due for liftoff as early as 8 a.m. EDT from SpaceX's Starbase launch site on the Gulf of Mexico near Boca Chica, Texas. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration just granted a license for the test flight on Wednesday afternoon. Unlike the first two test flights last year, aimed mainly at demonstrating that the spacecraft's two stages can separate after launch, the third test flight will involve an attempt to open Starship's…
US House Passes Bill Forcing TikTok to Separate From Chinese Parent Company
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would force short-video app TikTok, used by about 170 million Americans, to separate from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, or face a ban. VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson says the Senate may not approve the bill. ...
Japan Private Rocket Explodes Just After Launch
Tokyo — A rocket made by a Japanese company exploded just after launch on Wednesday, with public broadcaster NHK showing footage of the fiery failure. Tokyo-based startup Space One had been aiming to become the first Japanese private firm to successfully place a satellite into orbit. Its 18-meter solid-fuel Kairos rocket blasted off from the startup's own launch pad in Wakayama prefecture in western Japan, carrying a small government test satellite. But seconds after the launch, the rocket erupted into a ball of flame, with black smoke filling the launch pad area. Burning debris was seen falling onto the surrounding mountain slopes as sprinklers began spraying water. "The launch of the first Kairos rocket was executed, but we took a measure to abort the flight," Space One said in a statement,…
US House Expected to Pass Bill Forcing Chinese Company to Give Up TikTok
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to approve legislation Wednesday that would force the popular TikTok video app to either separate from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance or sell the U.S. version of the software. The bipartisan Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act “gives TikTok six months to eliminate foreign adversary control — which would include ByteDance divesting its current ownership — to remain available in the United States,” said Representative Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, the top Democrat on the committee. “All TikTok would have to do is separate from CCP-controlled ByteDance. However, if TikTok chose not to rid itself of this CCP control, the application…
Scientists in Alaska Develop Cloud-Based Data to Predict Volcanic Eruptions
Scientists in Alaska are developing a cloud-based approach to storing and analyzing data about volcanoes, in hopes of increasing the speed with which they can predict eruptions. Phil Dierking has our story. (Camera and Produced by: Philip Dierking) ...
Xi Jinping Sees AI, Unmanned Tech Boosting Military’s Capabilities
Taipei — During China's top legislative meetings this year, which wrapped up Monday, Chinese leader Xi Jinping ordered the military to develop what he called "new quality combat capabilities,” a phrase analysts say highlights a focus on the use of artificial intelligence, high-tech and intelligent warfare. It also could signal, they say, plans to build forces of unmanned ships and submarines to support military operations. Speaking at a gathering of the People’s Liberation Army or PLA and Armed Police Force delegates to the National People's Congress late last week about “new quality combat capabilities,” Xi called on the military to deepen its reforms and promote innovation to enhance strategic capabilities in emerging areas. During the meeting, six representatives from the military spoke about a range of topics from defense capabilities in…
LogOn: Miniature Body Cameras Designed to Combat Crime
Once used mainly by law enforcement, ordinary citizens now have access to smaller, cheaper versions of body cameras to help them feel safe in dangerous situations. Julie Taboh shows us how in this week’s episode of LogOn. ...
Trump: TikTok Poses National Security Threat, but Banning It Would Help Facebook
NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump said Monday that he still believes TikTok poses a national security risk but is opposed to banning the hugely popular app because doing so would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to lambast over his 2020 election loss. Trump, in a call-in interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box," was asked about his comments last week that seemed to voice opposition to a bill being advanced by Congress that would effectively ban TikTok and other ByteDance apps from the Apple and Google app stores as well as U.S. web hosting services. "Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it," Trump told the hosts. "There's a lot…
China Tightens Grip Over Internet During Key Political Meeting
Beijing, China — China has intensified efforts to block software that enables internet users to access banned websites during a top political meeting this week, a leading provider of firewall-leaping software told AFP. Beijing operates some of the world's most extensive censorship over the internet, with web users in mainland China unable to access everything from Google to news websites without using a virtual private network (VPN). And as thousands of delegates gather in Beijing this week for the annual "Two Sessions" meeting, VPN software has increasingly struggled to circumvent the censorship while outages have become much more frequent, even when compared to previous sensitive political events. "Currently, there is increased censorship due to political meetings in China," a representative of the Liechtenstein-based service Astrill — one of the most popular…
Russian Hackers Breach Microsoft Core Software Systems
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Microsoft said Friday it's still trying to evict the elite Russian government hackers who broke into the email accounts of senior company executives in November and who it said have been trying to breach customer networks with stolen access data. The hackers from Russia's SVR foreign intelligence service used data obtained in the intrusion, which Microsoft disclosed in mid-January, to compromise some source-code repositories and internal systems, the software giant said in a blog and a regulatory filing. A company spokesperson would not characterize what source code was accessed and what capability the hackers gained to further compromise customer and Microsoft systems. Microsoft said Friday that the hackers stole “secrets” from email communications between the company and unspecified customers — cryptographic secrets such as passwords, certificates and authentication…
NASA, US Navy Prepare Astronauts for Moon Mission
Although NASA has delayed the launch of a crewed mission to orbit the moon until 2025 at the earliest, four selected astronauts are training in preparation for the first such journey in more than 50 years. VOA’s Kane Farabaugh caught up with the crew of Artemis II during training and has more from San Diego. ...
Europe’s Digital Markets Act is Forcing Tech Giants to Make Changes
LONDON — Europeans scrolling their phones and computers this week will get new choices for default browsers and search engines, where to download iPhone apps and how their personal online data is used. They're part of changes required under the Digital Markets Act, a set of European Union regulations that six tech companies classed as “gatekeepers” — Amazon, Apple, Google parent Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft and TikTok owner ByteDance — will have to start following by midnight Wednesday. The DMA is the latest in a series of regulations that Europe has passed as a global leader in reining in the dominance of large tech companies. Tech giants have responded by changing some of their long-held ways of doing business — such as Apple allowing people to install smartphone apps outside of its…
Meta’s Facebook, Instagram Back Up After Global Outage
Washington — Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram were back up on Tuesday after a more than two-hour outage that was caused by a technical issue and impacted hundreds of thousands of users globally. The disruptions started at around 10:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), with many users saying on rival social media platform X they had been booted out of Facebook and Instagram and were unable to log in. "We are aware of the incident and at this time, we are not aware of any specific malicious cyber activity at this time," a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said. At the peak of the outage, there were more than 550,000 reports of disruptions for Facebook and about 92,000 for Instagram, according to outage tracking website Downdetector.com. "Earlier today, a technical…
Nigeria Takes Bold Steps to Erase Digital Gender Gap
The World Bank says digital entrepreneurship is paving the way for economic empowerment across Nigeria and reducing poverty through internet access. In a January report, the Bank says internet access reduced extreme poverty by 7% in the West African country. But it noted a digital gender gap where women are less likely than men to have internet access. Gibson Emeka reports from Abuja in this report narrated by Mary Alice Salinas. ...