Page 131 - United States

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor highlights India's growing global influence

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor emphasised India's importance as a global economic and political power during a conversation here at Rice University's Baker Institute. India matters, Tharoor said, stressing that what happens in India affects a sixth of humanity. The Thiruvananthapuram Member of Parliament explained that India, now the third-largest economy in purchasing power parity, can no longer be ignored or underestimated on the world stage. Delivering a compelling talk on India's global influence, moderated by David Satterfield, the institute's director and former US ambassador to Lebanon and Turkiye, Tharoor highlighted how India's rise as the world's most populous nation and fastest-growing major economy positions it as a significant player in world affairs. Tharoor, who was visiting Houston as a prominent author and speaker at the seventh edition of the Jaipur Literature Festival from September 6-8, also addressed the geopolitical challenges faced by India, particularly its ...

Global hiring intentions hold steady in Q4, shows ManpowerGroup survey

More than 40 per cent of employers surveyed expect an increase in hiring plans, while 16 per cent anticipate a reduction

Boeing labour deal angers many union workers ahead of vote, says official

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which represents more than 32,000 workers in the US Pacific Northwest, announced the deal along with Boeing on Sunday

US bill to restrict business with China's biotech companies passes House

The US Senate's Homeland Security committee voted in March to approve a similar bill

North Korea's Kim vows to keep his nuclear force ready for combat with US

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to redouble efforts to make his nuclear force fully ready for combat with the United States and its allies, state media reported Tuesday, after the country disclosed a new platform likely designed to fire more powerful intercontinental ballistic missiles targeting the mainland U.S. Kim has repeatedly made similar pledges, but his latest threat comes as outside experts believe Kim will perform provocative weapons tests ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November. In recent days, North Korea has also resumed launches of trash-carrying balloons toward South Korea. In a speech marking the 76th founding anniversary for his government on Monday, Kim said North Korea faces a grave threat because of what he called the reckless expansion of a U.S.-led regional military bloc that is now developing into a nuclear-based one. Kim said such a development is pushing North Korea to boost its military capability, according to the official Korean Central .

Ex-employees of Titanic submersible's owner to testify before panel

Former employees of the company that owned an experimental submersible that imploded on its way to the wreck of the Titanic are scheduled to testify before a Coast Guard investigatory board at an upcoming hearing. The Titan submersible imploded in the North Atlantic in June 2023, killing all five people on board and setting off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration. The U.S. Coast Guard quickly convened a high-level investigation into what happened, and that inquiry is set to reach its public hearing phase on Sept. 16. OceanGate, the Washington state company that owned the Titan submersible, suspended operations after the implosion that killed company co-founder Stockton Rush and the others. Witnesses scheduled to appear during the upcoming hearing include Guillermo Sohnlein, who is another co-founder of OceanGate, as well as the company's former engineering director, operations director and scientific director, according to documents provided by the ...

EQT to buy GeBBS Healthcare Solutions to expand in healthcare tech

The acquisition from ChrysCapital is aimed at accelerating GeBBS' growth as demand for RCM services increases amid complex US healthcare operations

US partners with India Semiconductor Mission to expand global ecosystem

Signed into law in August 2022, the US' CHIPS Act provides $500 million over five years to promote the development of secure and trusted semiconductor supply chains

South Korean truth panel finds more evidence of forced adoptions in 1980s

A South Korean commission found evidence that women were pressured into giving away their infants for foreign adoptions after giving birth at government-funded facilities where thousands of people were confined and enslaved from the 1960s to the 1980s. The report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Monday came years after The Associated Press revealed adoptions from the biggest facility for so-called vagrants, Brothers Home, which shipped children abroad as part of a huge, profit-seeking enterprise that exploited thousands of people trapped within the compound in the port city of Busan. Thousands of children and adults many of them grabbed off the streets were enslaved in such facilities and often raped, beaten or killed in the 1970s and 1980s. The commission was launched in December 2020 to review human rights violations linked to the country's past military governments. It had previously found the country's past military governments responsible for atrocities committed

Asian markets dip after Wall Street had its worst week in nearly 18 months

Asian stocks fell Monday after another rout hit Wall Street on Friday, as a highly anticipated update on the US job market came in weak enough to add to worries about the economy. The Nikkei 225 index was hovering around its lowest level in almost a month during morning trading, and it slipped 0.5 per cent to close at 36,215.75. Japan's gross domestic product grew by an annualised 2.9 per cent in the second quarter, according to revised data from the Cabinet Office released on Monday. This was below expectations. Any broader risk aversion may have an amplified effect on Japanese equities, with safe-haven flows potentially supporting the yen, which is looked upon as negative for the country's exporters, Yeap Jun Rong, market strategist at IG, said in a commentary. The US dollar was trading at less than 143 Japanese yen in Monday trading. Stocks in Chinese markets also racked up losses after worse-than-expected inflation data disappointed investors. Data from the National Bureau of

UK authorities vow relentless search as manhunt for shooter enters Day 3

As a gruelling manhunt stretched into a third day Monday for a suspect in an interstate shooting that struck 12 vehicles and wounded five people, authorities vowed to keep up a relentless search as the stress level remained high for a rural area where some schools cancelled classes. Authorities have been searching a rugged, hilly area of southeastern Kentucky since Saturday evening, when a gunman began shooting at drivers on Interstate 75 near London, a small city of about 8,000 people located about 75 miles (120 kilometres) south of Lexington. The search was temporarily suspended once darkness fell Sunday night, but was set to resume Monday morning. We're not going to quit until we do lay hands on him, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said Sunday night. Joseph A. Couch, 32, was named first as a person of interest and later as a suspect in the shooting after authorities said they recovered his SUV on a service road near the crime scene. They later found a semi-automatic weapon nearb

US Congress takes up series of bills targeting China, from drones to drugs

How to curb and counter China's influence and power through its biotech companies, drones and electric vehicles will dominate the US House's first week back from summer break, with lawmakers taking up a series of measures targeting Beijing. Washington views Beijing as its biggest geopolitical rival, and the legislation is touted as ensuring the US prevails in the competition. Many of the bills scheduled for a vote this week appear to have both Republican and Democratic support, reflecting strong consensus that congressional actions are needed to counter China. The legislation "will take meaningful steps to counter the military, economic and ideological threat of the Chinese Communist Party, said Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and a Michigan Republican. There's a bipartisan goal to win this competition. Advocacy groups worry about the impact, warning against rhetoric that hurts Asian Americans and could create "an atmosphere

Quad summit to take place in Delaware this month, India may host next year

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to join the leaders of the US, Japan and Australia at the Quad summit in the US later this month as the influential grouping is likely to deliberate on pressing global challenges including the situation in Ukraine. The summit is likely to take place on September 21 in US President Joe Biden's hometown of Wilmington in Delaware, people familiar with the matter said. There is no official announcement yet on the date and venue of the high-profile summit. It was India's turn to host the Quad summit this year. However, the leaders of the grouping decided to hold the summit at a venue convenient to all in view of constraints of a tight calendar. As per the new plan, India is expected to host the Quad summit next year. Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida are among the world leaders who are travelling to the US to attend the UN's Summit of the Future in New York on September 22 and 23. The Quad su

Whistleblower alleges BofA of sharing non-public information: WSJ

The whistleblower's complaint was filed in June, according to the report

US polls: Over 90 company execs, 100 law enforcement officials back Harris

"Harris has a strong record of advancing actions to spur business investment in the United States and ensure American businesses can compete and win in the global market," they wrote

Israeli soldiers kill American woman during West Bank protest, witness says

Israeli soldiers killed an American woman participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, another protester who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. Two doctors said she was shot in the head. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of the 26-year-old woman but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. He said the US was gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and would have more to say. He and the doctors who treated her released the woman's name, but the activist organisation she was volunteering with, the International Solidarity Movement, said her family had asked she not be identified. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The woman who was fatally shot was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion, protests that have grow

Zelenskyy meets military leaders in Germany as US announces aid to Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday with top United States military leaders and more than 50 partner nations in Germany to press for more weapons support Friday as Washington announced it would provide another USD 250 million in security assistance to Kyiv. US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting of the leaders was taking place during a dynamic moment in Ukraine's fight against Russia, as it conducts its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key hub in the Donbas. So far the surprise assault inside Russia's Kursk territory has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin's focus from taking the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which provides critical rail and supply links for the Ukrainian army. Losing Pokrovsk could put additional Ukrainian cities at risk. While Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, we know Putin's malice runs deep, Austin cautioned in prepared remarks to the media before the Ukraine ...

Here's a look at the legal saga of Hunter Biden that ended in guilty plea

The legal saga surrounding Hunter Biden took an unexpected turn when he pleaded guilty to nine federal tax counts after prosecutors refused to budge in their opposition to a special plea that would have allowed him to maintain his innocence. The twist that played out as jury selection was scheduled to start in the tax trial Thursday almost brings to a close a yearslong investigation of President Joe Biden's son. The case has been punctuated by Republicans' allegations of preferential treatment and accusations by his defense attorneys that prosecutors overcorrected and bowed to political pressure when two indictments were issued as a previous plea deal fell apart. Hunter Biden will now await sentencing in both his June jury conviction on charges that he lied about his drug use on a federal form to purchase a gun, which he possessed for 11 days, and the tax case he pleaded guilty to Thursday. Here's a look at the winding legal road that led to the surprise plea. The plea deal that ..

JD Vance laments Georgia shooting, calls for improved security measures

Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance said Thursday that he lamented that school shootings are a fact of life" and argued the U.S. needs to harden security to prevent more carnage like the shooting this week that left four dead in Georgia. If these psychos are going to go after our kids we've got to be prepared for it, Vance said at a rally in Phoenix. We don't have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We've got to deal with it. The Ohio senator was asked by a journalist what can be done to stop school shootings. He said further restricting access to guns, as many Democrats advocate, won't end them, noting they happen in states with both lax and strict gun laws. He touted efforts in Congress to give schools more money for security. I don't like that this is a fact of life, Vance said. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We'v

Rahul Gandhi visits US on 3-day trip: Top things on agenda explained

Rahul Gandhi left for the US on Friday, marking his first international trip since the Lok Sabha elections in June, in which the Congress-led INDIA bloc recorded impressive victories against the BJP