United States

US 'may' join Saudi strikes on Houthis after Riyadh airport attack: Trump

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he is evaluating whether the US should join Saudi strikes on the Houthis. "We may. We're going to look at it," he told reporters here. "We just found out about the recent attack. So we'll make a decision. We move very quickly," he said. The airport in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, was attacked again Saturday and evacuated, two regional officials said, just days after three Saudi citizens, including a pilot, were killed as the kingdom faces an extraordinary series of assaults in the new front in the Iran war. A missile struck a complex housing terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights at King Khalid International Airport and many people were wounded, one of the officials said. The airport has been targeted multiple times in the week since a Saudi-led coalition launched a major military offensive against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen. The Houthis claimed responsibility for the earlier attacks, including one Wednesday that kil

UN raises concerns over mass detentions during protests in Delhi

The UN human rights office has raised concerns over mass detentions during large-scale protests in Delhi on Saturday, as it urged Indian authorities to respect the right to peaceful assembly and called for the immediate release of anyone arbitrarily detained. Hundreds of protesters were detained as security forces prevented a planned demonstration by the Gen Z-led Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) from reaching Jantar Mantar in central Delhi. The protest was called to demand electoral reforms and the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar over allegations of manipulation of voter lists. The Election Commission and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have denied the allegations. In a statement on Saturday, UN human rights spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said the office was "concerned by reports of mass detentions in India of demonstrators, protest leaders, members of civil society organisations, lawyers and journalists, before and during today's large-scale ...

American Express fined $350 mn for weak anti-money laundering system

The OCC and Federal Reserve fined American Express $350 million over anti-money laundering compliance failures, saying the lender failed to adequately report roughly $13 billion in suspicious activity

PERM programme's suspension won't affect existing H-1B visas, clarifies MEA

MEA also objected to US Vice President JD Vance's description of H-1B workers as "foreign indentured servants", calling the terminology "deeply offensive" for its historical and colonial connotations

Middle powers are soft on the US, 'about right' with China, survey finds

The Munich Security Conference poll, conducted in 11 countries, found respondents in India saying the government was "too accommodating" of China

Donald Trump expected to name Jay Clayton as new US AI czar: Report

Clayton already oversees 18 US intelligence agencies as the nation's top spy; his appointment would mark a shift from Trump's first AI czar, venture capitalist David Sacks

America's war on Muslims

A new book by Rozina Ali traces the rise of anti-Islamic sentiment in the wake of 9/11, showing how ordinary residents became targets of fear and suspicion

Elon Musk to help Pentagon identify weapons, tech for future wars

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will lead the "Project Meridian" alongside Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich

Powerful nor'easter lashes parts of northeast US with winds, rain, flooding

A slow-moving, powerful storm crept along the coast of the US Northeast on Saturday, producing high winds that caused power outages while whipping up big waves and heavy rains that created dangerous conditions. Tens of millions of people were in the path of the nor'easter, which was forecast to affect the mid-Atlantic area and New England throughout the weekend. Electricity was knocked out to about 100,000 customers in the region at one point. The forecast showed no immediate reprieve. There will be "a lot of high winds, a lot of high tides and heavy rain possibility over the next few days for the northeastern US," said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland. The highest tides were likely to occur north of Atlantic City, New Jersey, from Saturday night into Sunday, creating the potential for widespread road flooding in coastal and bayside communities, the National Weather Service said. "Anyone who goes in or near the water this weeke

No dilution in India's zero-tolerance approach to terrorism: Jaishankar

Jaishankar reiterated India's zero-tolerance approach towards terrorism as he called out Pakistan for misrepresenting facts at the United Nations General Assembly

US happy to become provider as India diversifies energy sources: Official

India-US ties have grown significantly over the past year, with Washington emerging as an important energy supplier to New Delhi as it diversifies its sources, a senior US official has said. US Department of State Deputy Assistant Secretary Bethany Morrison on Thursday said the relationship between the two countries now spans energy, defence, commercial cooperation and multilateral engagements, with South Asia becoming a major priority for the Trump administration. "When you look at India, just over the last year with the US-India partnership, the scale and breadth of that relationship has grown from last year," Morrison said at a roundtable organised at the New York Foreign Press Centre. She also cited the 10-year defence framework agreement between India and the US and new initiatives in the energy sector as examples of the expanding partnership. "India for the first time in 20 years reformed their nuclear regulatory environment by passing the SHANTI Act, and now we're moving ...

US says China agreed to buy 10 million tonnes of coal in 2027, 2028

Coal production is high on the US president's agenda and his administration has moved to revitalize the industry to consolidate its place as a premium source of energy for the country

China, US agree to $30 billion tariff cut, AI dialogue, says Chinese FM

The leaders of the world's two largest economies ended a three-day ​summit that showcased personal diplomacy rather than big public breakthroughs

Datanomics: Love-hate relationship between the two largest economies

Foreign direct investment by China into the US and job creation by their MNEs in each other's economy have also been declining recently

NIA case: Delhi Court allows US' Van Dyke, 6 Ukrainians to travel home

US national Matthew Aaron VanDyke and six Ukrainian nationals, whom the court has granted default bail, were in judicial custody at Tihar Jail

UK test-fires US torpedo from undersea drone ahead of Burnham-Trump meet

The UK has test-fired a US torpedo from an undersea drone in a symbolic boost for maritime ties in time for Prime Minister Andy Burnham's first meeting with US President Donald Trump in New York on Tuesday. Downing Street said the Plymouth-made drone was used in the first such test firing of an anti-submarine weapon -- jointly developed by the US and Australia -- as part of the AUKUS programme. The heavyweight torpedo is designed to sink ships and deep-diving submarines launched from a 12-metre-long undersea UK-made drone named Excalibur. "The firing, which happened in UK waters last week, marks the first time either country had launched a torpedo from an undersea uncrewed vessel, rather than a crewed submarine. It marks a major advance in the future of submarine technology for the UK, US, and Australia, and delivers a significant breakthrough for Euro-Atlantic security and NATO's undersea advantage. "This will build on the next generation technology already being developed through

Paramount-Warner $81 bn merger clears key hurdle as states settle lawsuits

Twelve states and Hollywood writers challenging Paramount's buyout of Warner Bros Discovery agreed to settle their lawsuits on Monday, effectively paving the way for the USD 81 billion mega merger to cross the finish line, with some new commitments from the company. The blockbuster deal will still vastly reshape Hollywood - bringing together two of the "big five" remaining studios, key TV networks like CBS and CNN and streaming platforms HBO Max and Paramount+, as well as decades-old libraries with titles ranging from "Harry Potter" to "Top Gun." But among terms of Monday's agreement announced by California Attorney General Rob Bonta - who led the states' case - Skydance-owned Paramount pledged to increase film production in the U.S., commit millions of dollars to a fund to support workers displaced by the merger and create new monitoring of the editorial independence of the company's news operations. The settlement still needs a final sign-off by a judge. Paramount CEO David Ellis

Flights disrupted across US Northeast after air traffic centre outage

Damaged communications lines at a key air traffic control facility in Philadelphia had been repaired, allowing airports across the US Northeast to resume operations after hours of disruptions, the nation's transportation secretary said. Hundreds of flights were cancelled, including more than 600 into and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, as the outage hit every major airport in the New York City area on Monday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in an online post that "it will take some time to clear all existing delays" despite the repairs. The primary communications line at the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Philadelphia had failed earlier Monday, while the backup fiber optic line was inadvertently severed by railroad construction workers. The failures left controllers without radar or communications for hours. The outage brought commercial air traffic to a near-standstill at Newark for much of the day, with no commercial flights landing at the airpo

Iran says US preparing to resume attacks, warns of a sustained response

Tehran's central military command says any US attack would trigger sustained strikes on American bases and interests, and warns countries against supporting Washington