Several analysts suggested Washington might take some action to cut Iran's oil exports in part to temper any Israeli reaction to the Iranian strikes, which could escalate the conflict
The White House on Monday rejected a long-shot effort from House Republicans to get President Joe Biden to testify before lawmakers in the GOP's stalled impeachment inquiry. In a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, the White House dismissed the invitation sent to Biden last month, calling it a partisan charade in an impeachment probe that has unearthed no evidence implicating the president in any wrongdoing while in public office. House Republicans had been seeking information related to the Biden family's business dealings in what the GOP characterized as an alleged influence-peddling scheme. Your Committee's purported impeachment inquiry' has succeeded only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the President has done nothing wrong, Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, wrote in the letter sent to Comer on Monday. Sauber added, Your insistence on peddling these false and unsupported allegations despite ample evidence to the contrary makes
The Biden administration asserted that India was an important strategic partner of the US and added that the status of the relationship is expected to remain unchanged. US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller was responding to a question at a press conference on Monday on the US-India relationship in the context of some articles and opinion pieces critical of the Indian government published ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in India. To a question on alleged concerns about democratic backsliding in India and the recent statements by the State Department regarding the alleged crackdown on opposition, Miller said, India is the world's largest democracy. It is an important strategic partner of the United States and I expect that to remain true. US officials in the recent past have called India a "very important partner and that the relationship between the two countries continues to grow. However, after the historic Official State Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Whi
The Biden administration has reached an agreement to provide up to $6.4 billion in direct funding for Samsung Electronics to develop a computer chip manufacturing and research cluster in Texas. The funding announced Monday by the Commerce Department is part of a total investment in the cluster that, with private money, is expected to exceed $40 billion. The government support comes from the CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 with the goal of reviving the production of advanced computer chips domestically. The proposed project will propel Texas into a state of the art semiconductor ecosystem, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on a call with reporters. It puts us on track to hit our goal of producing 20% of the world's leading edge chips in the United States by the end of the decade. Raimondo said she expects the project will create at least 17,000 construction jobs and more than 4,500 manufacturing jobs. Samsung's cluster in Taylor, Texas, .
Iran's attack on Israel by more than 300 missiles and drones, which were mostly shot down by Israel's US-backed missile defence system, caused chaos in the aviation industry
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Tax Day reveals a major split in how Joe Biden and Donald Trump would govern: The presidential candidates have conflicting ideas about how much to reveal about their own finances and the best ways to boost the economy through tax policy. Biden, the sitting Democratic president, plans to release his income tax returns on Monday, the IRS filing deadline. And on Tuesday, he is scheduled to deliver a speech in Scranton, Pennsylvania, about why the wealthy should pay more in taxes to reduce the federal deficit and help fund programs for the poor and middle class. Biden is proud to say that he was largely without money for much of his decades-long career in public service, unlike Trump, who inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his father and used his billionaire status to launch a TV show and later a presidential campaign. For 36 years, I was listed as the poorest man in Congress, Biden told donors in California in February. Not a joke. In 2015, Trump declared as part of his ..
The US, which helped the Israeli air defence to shoot down Iranian missiles, lauded the 'remarkable Israeli defence' and reiterated America's 'ironclad' security commitments to Israel
In a singular moment for American history, the hush money trial of former President Donald Trump begins Monday with jury selection. It's the first criminal trial of a former commander in chief and the first of Trump's four indictments to go to trial. Because Trump is the presumptive nominee for this year's Republican ticket, the trial will also produce the head-spinning split-screen of a presidential candidate spending his days in court and, he has said, "campaigning during the night. And to some extent, it is a trial of the justice system itself as it grapples with a defendant who has used his enormous prominence to assail the judge, his daughter, the district attorney, some witnesses and the allegations all while blasting the legitimacy of a legal structure that he insists has been appropriated by his political opponents. Against that backdrop, scores of ordinary citizens are due to be called Monday into a cavernous room in a utilitarian courthouse to determine whether they can .
President Joe Biden is set to host Iraq's leader this week for talks that come as tensions across the Middle East have soared over the war in Gaza and Iran's unprecedented weekend attack on Israel in retaliation for an Israeli military strike against an Iranian facility in Syria. The sharp rise in security fears has raised further questions about the viability of the two-decade American military presence in Iraq, through which portions of Iran's Saturday drone and missile attack on Israel flew or were launched from. A U.S. Patriot battery in Irbil, Iraq, knocked down at least one Iranian ballistic missile, according to American officials. In addition, Iranian proxies have initiated attacks against U.S. interests throughout the region from inside Iraq, making Monday's meeting between Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Shia al-Sudani all the more critical. The talks will include a discussion of regional stability and future U.S. troop deployments but will also focus on economic, trade and
Unequivocally condemning in the strongest terms Iran's direct and unprecedented attack against Israel, the G-7 leaders on Sunday said the development risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation even as permanent members of the UN Security Council announced to convene an emergency meeting on the issues in New York. With its actions, Iran has further stepped toward the destabilisation of the region and risks provoking an uncontrollable regional escalation. This must be avoided. We will continue to work to stabilise the situation and avoid further escalation, G-7 leaders said in a joint statement after a conference call among them initiated by President Joe Biden. The US assisted Israel in shooting down dozens of drones and missiles fired by Iran in its first direct military assault on the former. Israeli authorities said 99 per cent of the inbound weapons were shot down without causing any significant damage. In this spirit, we demand that Iran and its proxies cease their .
Iran launched the attack over a suspected Israeli strike on its embassy compound in Syria on April 1 that killed top Revolutionary Guards commanders
The United States on Sunday highlighted its role in helping Israel thwart an unprecedented aerial attack from Iran as President Joe Biden convened leaders of the Group of Seven countries in an effort to prevent a wider regional escalation and coordinate a global rebuke of Tehran. The US assisted Israel in shooting down dozens of drones and missiles fired by Iran on Saturday in what was the first time it had launched a direct military assault on Israel. Israeli authorities said 99 per cent of the inbound weapons were shot down without causing any significant damage. US officials said that despite the high interception rate, Iran's intent was to destroy and cause casualties and that if successful, the strikes would have caused an uncontrollable escalation across the Mideast. US officials said Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in an effort to contain tensions, that Washington would not participate in any offensive action against Iran, and the president made very cle
Iran launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night in response to a suspected Israel attack on Iran's Syria consulate on April 1
US Defence Secretary further highlighted that the US forces, at the direction of President Joe Biden, intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel
Meanwhile, in a stern warning for Israel's closest ally, Iran asked the US to stay away from the ongoing conflict with Israel
Iran has begun an airborne attack on Israel, the White House said and asserted that the US' support for Israel's security is "ironclad". Israeli aviation authorities on Saturday said they are closing the country's airspace to all flights as it braces for an Iranian drone attack. The US stands with the people of Israel and supports their defence against this threat from Iran, National Security Council's spokesperson at the White House Adrienne Watson said. In a statement issued on Saturday, Watson also said this attack is likely to unfold over a number of hours. "Iran has begun an airborne attack against Israel" and President Joe Biden's team is in constant communication with Israeli officials as well as other partners and allies, the spokesperson said. President Biden, who returned to Washington from his home in Delaware following the developments in the Middle East, will be meeting his national security team over the situation in the region, according to the statement. On his re
President Joe Biden has condemned Iran's unprecedented air attack on Israel and convened a meeting of the G-7 leaders on Sunday to develop a coordinated response to the brazen assault. His comments came as American forces joined efforts to down drones and missiles launched by Tehran. Israel said it and its allies have intercepted the vast majority of more than 200 drones and missiles launched by Iran. "Earlier today, Iranand its proxies operating out of Yemen, Syria and Iraqlaunched an unprecedented air attack against military facilities in Israel. I condemn these attacks in the strongest possible terms," Biden said after his call with Netanyahu. Biden said at his direction, to support the defence of Israel, the US military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defence destroyers to the region over the course of the past week. Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our servicemembers, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles, he
President Joe Biden nudged further ahead in the Democratic nomination for reelection by winning the party caucuses in Wyoming and was the only choice on the ballot later Saturday in Alaska. As two of the least populated states, Alaska and Wyoming play minuscule roles in both intraparty and general election voting in presidential election years. Biden effectively clinched the Democratic nomination on March 12 with the Georgia primary and is now all but certain to face former President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in November. ALASKA Alaska Democrats are holding a voice vote for their party-run preference poll at in-person and virtual district meetings. Biden's is the lone candidate eligible to receive votes after the other Democrat to qualify, Dean Phillips, suspended his campaign last month. The vote is being held during meetings where other party business is conducted. The polling was delayed a week. Democrats had planned a ranked vote election by mail on April 6 but t
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