The U.S. said Monday that for the first time it will sell coal to Ukraine, easing its reliance on Russia and Moscow-back separatists in eastern Ukraine to meet its energy needs. The accord calls for Xcoal Energy & Resources in the eastern state of Pennsylvania to ship 700,000 tons of thermal coal by the end of the year to Ukraine’s state-owned energy firm Centrenergo to help it heat homes and businesses in the coming winter months. The first shipment, at a cost of $113 a metric ton, is expected to …

Online searches about suicide and suicide methods spiked in the weeks following the release of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, a show that dramatizes the suicide of a teenage girl, according to a U.S. study released Monday. Google searches about suicide were 19 percent higher than average in the 19 days following the show’s release on March 31, translating into 900,000 to 1,500,000 more searches, researchers reported in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.  The study did not examine whether the actual number of suicides increased following the …

Ride-hailing service Lyft carried more passengers through June this year than it did in all of last year as it capitalized on missteps at Uber.   The company says ridership through June surpassed the 162.5 million rides it gave in all of 2016. A spokeswoman wouldn’t give an exact number.   Lyft has made its gains as some shun much larger rival, Uber. Riders boycotted Uber after allegations that it took advantage of a New York taxi boycott in protest of President Donald Trump’s first order on immigration. There also …

The crocodile industry in Australia’s Northern Territory, a new report says, is worth more than four times the previous estimate of US $80 million. Officials hope the findings will give poorer aboriginal communities the chance to develop crocodile farming industries. The saltwater creature is the world’s largest reptile. In Australia, they were once hunted to the brink of extinction, mainly for their skins, which were used to make durable leather goods and clothes. They have been a protected species since the early 1970s, and their numbers in Australia’s tropical north …

Apple, Inc. has confirmed that it is removing some applications providing virtual personal networks, or VPNs, from its China App Store, to comply with new Chinese regulations — a move critics say is capitulating to internet censorship. Apple confirmed the move in an email to National Public Radio on Saturday, after several VPN providers announced that their apps had been removed from the China App Store. Software made outside China can sometimes be used to get around China’s domestic internet firewalls that block content that the government finds objectionable. Critics …

Jessica Williams says it’s a great time to be an actress of color, and applauds Netflix for leading the way in promoting diversity.   Williams, who cut her teeth as a correspondent on “The Daily Show,” takes on her first starring role in the streaming network’s original film, “The Incredible Jessica James.”   The actress feels Netflix helped shape stories about people of color, citing original programming like “Master of None” and “Orange is the New Black” that are able to “showcase people of color in an amazing way.”   …

Silicon Valley is the tech industry’s epicenter, but what is the epicenter of Silicon Valley? It might just be Coupa Café in downtown Palo Alto, Calif. For the tech community, this café is a meeting place of the who’s who of Silicon Valley, where the likes of the late Steve Jobs of Apple, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin have all been spotted. Up-and-coming startup founders are able to buy their lattes with the digital currency Bitcoin before their pitch sessions with leading industry venture capitalists. The café …

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is reintroducing a living fossil into its waterways. The alligator gar is a fish so old, it’s thought to have evolved during the Early Cretaceous period, more than a 100 million years ago. Alligator gar are the second largest freshwater fish in North America. Illinois fisheries biologist Randy Sauer says they disappeared from the state’s waterways in the 1990s, although they continued to thrive in southern U.S. rivers. “We want to restore the ecosystem because it is important to have top predators to balance …

In June of 2016, Mikah Meyer set out on an ambitious journey — to visit all 417 national park sites in America. He estimates it will take him three years to complete his non-stop journey. One-third of the way through his adventure, he shared highlights – and lowlights – with VOA’s Julie Taboh. … From: MeNeedIt

A new technique using artificial intelligence to predict where deforestation is most likely to occur could help the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) preserve its shrinking rainforest and cut carbon emissions, researchers have said. Congo’s rainforest, the world’s second-largest after the Amazon, is under pressure from farms, mines, logging and infrastructure development, scientists say. Protecting forests is widely seen as one of the cheapest and most effective ways to reduce the emissions driving global warming. But conservation efforts in DRC have suffered from a lack of precise data on which …

Married country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are sharing the love by handing out wedding gifts to fans. Jude and Jamie Blanchard attended Brooks’ show in Lafayette, Louisiana, last month with a sign that read: “Best Week Ever. Garth this Friday, our wedding next Friday.” Brooks took notice and serenaded them with “To Make You Feel My Love.” He also asked if they wanted anything off their wedding registry, and Jamie passed along a wedding invitation to the stage. The Lafayette Daily Advertiser reports a pair of lounge chairs, …

Scientists have developed an experimental surgical glue inspired by the mucus secreted by slugs that could offer an alternative to sutures and staples for closing wounds. While some medical glues already exist, they often adhere weakly, are not particularly flexible and frequently cannot be used in very wet conditions. To get around those problems, a group of scientists from Harvard and other research centers decided to learn from slugs, which — as well as making slime to glide on — can produce extremely adhesive mucus as a defense mechanism. The …

Projected increases in rain from global warming could further choke U.S. waterways with fertilizer runoff that trigger dead zones and massive algae blooms, a new study said.   If greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, more and heavier rain will increase nitrogen flowing into lakes, rivers and bays by about 19 percent by the end of the century, according to a study in Thursday’s journal Science.   While that may not sound like much, many coastal areas are already heavily loaded with nitrogen. Researchers calculated that an extra 860,000 tons of …

U.S. lawmakers said on Thursday that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross told them he will defer to President Donald Trump on the timing of a decision on new steel import curbs, likely meaning further delays and deliberations on the issue. Members of the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee attending a briefing with Ross said he did not specify a timetable for releasing a long-awaited report that will lay out options for shielding the steel industry from imports on national security grounds. Ross had originally hoped to release the steel …

A construction permit should be granted for a giant telescope planned for a Hawaii mountain summit that some consider sacred, a hearings officer recommended Wednesday. Retired judge Riki May Amano, who is overseeing contested-case hearings for the Thirty Meter Telescope, had been weighing facts in the case since June, after hearing oftentimes emotional testimony that spanned 44 days. The $1.4 billion project has divided those who believe the telescope will desecrate land atop Mauna Kea held sacred by some Native Hawaiians and those who believe it will provide Hawaii with …

We know that staying active and involved with family and friends can help keep our brains healthy as we get older. A new study in Portland, Oregon, combines those activities to gauge their effectiveness in warding off dementia. Faith Lapidus reports. … From: MeNeedIt

Every second, millions of tons of various gases rise from the surface of the earth into the atmosphere. Many of them are man-made and harmful, contributing massively to pollution and consequently to global warming. The European Space Agency, ESA, is slowly building a network of satellites that will help scientists create a real-time global map of the health of our planet. VOA’s George Putic reports. … From: MeNeedIt

Backstreet Boys got their first hit country song this year on a collaboration with country duo Florida Georgia and now the two powerhouse acts are teaming up for a “CMT Crossroads” episode airing Aug. 30. The cross-genre television show will feature all-star group performances of each other’s biggest singles, including “I Want It That Way,” “As Long As You Love Me,” “Cruise” and “H.O.L.Y.” as well as their partnership on the platinum hit “God, Your Momma, and Me.” The two groups are popping up together a lot this year. They …

Eight siblings who grew up in southwestern Indiana have amassed nearly 450 years of combined marriage.   Bruce Clinkenbeard of Freelandville, Indiana, and his wife Sally have been married for 53 years, but that’s just the tip of the Clinkenbeard family’s matrimonial iceberg.   Bruce and his seven siblings have together racked up a combined 448 years of marriage, and counting. Seven of the eight siblings either have been or were married for more than a half-century. That includes a sister who died in 2013 after 63 years of matrimony. …

Katinka Hosszu has a case full of medals. She wants so much more. From marketing marvel to ambitious businesswoman to fledgling union organizer, the Hungarian swimmer known as the “Iron Lady” knows how to make a splash – in and out of the pool. Along with American star Katie Ledecky, Hosszu is perhaps the biggest name at the world championships this week, the home-country favorite whose face seemingly appears on every billboard around Budapest, whose every appearance at Duna Arena is accompanied by foot-stomping, flag-waving euphoria. She lived up to …

James Bond is returning to movie theaters in November 2019, producers said Monday, but they did not say who will play Britain’s most famous fictional spy. Eon Productions and MGM studios said in a statement that the 25th Bond film will be released in U.S. theaters on Nov. 8, 2019, with a slightly earlier release in Britain. They gave no title, casting or other details. Britain’s Daniel Craig has played Bond in the last four films, including 2012’s Skyfall and 2015’s Spectre. The 2015 film took some $880 million at …

Brazil’s cash-strapped government is drawing up a voluntary redundancy plan for federal civil servants aimed at reducing its bloated payroll and saving about 1 billion reais ($318 million) a year, the Planning Ministry said on Monday. It will also offer public employees a shorter workday in the latest effort to cut payroll costs and reduce a gaping budget deficit that cost Brazil its investment grade credit rating. The ministry said in a statement that the plan would be announced this week. The government’s income and spending estimates published last week …

Conservative Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are seeking to add an amendment this week to spending legislation that would slash the number of staff at the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The budget research office, known as the CBO, has drawn recent Republican criticism, including from the White House, after it concluded that Republican proposals to replace Obamacare would lead to 23 million more Americans being uninsured if they became law. Representative Mark Meadows, head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said on Monday his colleague Morgan Griffith has …

The popularity of drones keeps growing, both for personal and commercial use. Instead of humans controlling them, researchers are working on ways to teach the unmanned vehicles how to navigate and avoid obstacles. In Switzerland, researchers are training drones to recognize their surroundings and build 3D maps. VOA’s Deborah Block explains how. … From: MeNeedIt

Sometimes, it’s the simplest ideas that can have the biggest impact. When it comes to wheelchair technology, any advances are welcome, but one simple idea may forever change the way wheelchairs work. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports. … From: MeNeedIt

On August 21, 2017 people in many parts of United States will be able to enjoy a rare visual spectacle – a total eclipse of the sun. Although the moon passes between the sun and our planet relatively often, a total eclipse is visible only occasionally and only in some parts of the globe. VOA’s George Putic reports. … From: MeNeedIt