Obama Announces Deal to Raise Debt Ceiling

VOANews: Obama Announces Deal to Raise Debt Ceiling

President says agreement with House and Senate leaders includes $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years

Major Study Aims to Evaluate Environment, Genetic Factors Involving Child Health

VOAVideo: Major Study Aims to Evaluate Environment, Genetic Factors Involving Child Health

U.S. health officials have embarked on one of the most comprehensive evaluations of child health ever undertaken in the United States. Researchers will be collecting data on a host of environmental and genetic factors that impact children's health and the health of the adults they will become. As VOA's Carol Pearson reports, doctors hope the results will shed new light on risk factors for autism, obesity and a host of other childhood health problems. (read more)

US Debt Crisis

VOAVideo: US Debt Talks

** 1:54-2:04 How the debt cris can affect Senior Citizens
** 2:04-2:41 How the debt cris can affect China and the world economy

Also see VOANews: Obama Encourages Bipartisan Solution to Avoid Debt Default

wh.gov: US Debt Graphic

President Obama: "There are plenty of ways out of this mess. But we are almost out of time. We need to reach a compromise by Tuesday so that our country will have the ability to pay its bills on time, as we always have -- bills that include monthly Social Security checks, veterans’ benefits and the government contracts we’ve signed with thousands of businesses. Keep in mind, if we don’t do that, if we don’t come to an agreement, we could lose our country’s AAA credit rating, not because we didn’t have the capacity to pay our bills -- we do -- but because we didn’t have a AAA political system to match our AAA credit rating.

And make no mistake -– for those who say they oppose tax increases on anyone, a lower credit rating would result potentially in a tax increase on everyone in the form of higher interest rates on their mortgages, their car loans, their credit cards. And that’s inexcusable.

There are a lot of crises in the world that we can’t always predict or avoid -– hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, terrorist attacks. This isn’t one of those crises. The power to solve this is in our hands. And on a day when we’ve been reminded how fragile the economy already is, this is one burden we can lift ourselves. We can end it with a simple vote –- a vote that Democrats and Republicans have been taking for decades, a vote that the leaders in Congress have taken for decades."

Researchers See Trend of People Moving Between Texas, California

VOAVideo: Researchers See Trend of People Moving Between Texas, California

The recession and collapse of the housing industry in the United States is causing many Americans to move in search of jobs and a cheaper place to live. But a researcher at the University of California says there has been an unexpected decline in overall state to state migration since the recession. He calls it the "staying home phenomenon." Of those who did move, many are moving between California and Texas. (read more)

Chinese Basketball Superstar Yao Ming Retires

VOAVideo: Chinese Basketball Superstar Yao Ming Retires

China's towering basketball star Yao Ming has announced his decision to retire from the National Basketball Association after a series of injuries made it impossible for him to continue to compete for the Houston Rockets. Yao Ming says he's not leaving basketball, however, and will continue to work for his former Chinese team, the Shanghai Sharks, as well as with his charity group the Yao Foundation. VOA's William Ide has more from Beijing.

ESL Podcast 705 – An Exclusive Guest List

ESL Podcast 705 – An Exclusive Guest List

Did you get invited to our exclusive party? If not, find out why on this episode. Download Podcast

Average American Struggles to Control Spending

VOAVideo: Average American Struggles to Control Spending

A self-described "debtor" says he fought hard to bring his habit under control