Page 161 - United States

House rejects Greene's effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, chaos lingers

Hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tried and failed in a brazen push to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, but the resounding rejection by Democrats and Republicans does not guarantee an end to the political chaos. One of Donald Trump's biggest supporters in Congress, Greene stood on the House floor late Wednesday and read a long list of transgressions she said Johnson had committed as speaker, from his passage of a $95 billion national security package with aid for Ukraine to his reliance on Democrats to wield power. Colleagues booed in protest. But Greene soldiered on, criticizing Johnson's leadership as pathetic, weak and unacceptable. After Greene triggered the vote on her motion to vacate the speaker from his office, Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise quickly countered by calling first for a vote to table it. An overwhelming majority, 359-43, kept Johnson in his job, for now. As I've said from the beginning, and I've made clear here every day, I intend to do my job, Joh

US sends warship through Taiwan Strait weeks before Lai takes office

The latest mission's timing was extra sensitive, given it took place ahead of the May 20 inauguration of Taiwan President-elect Lai Ching-te, a man who China says is a dangerous separatist

US may ban Chinese connected vehicles or impose restrictions: Raimondo

The White House said in February the Commerce probe was being opened because vehicles "collect large amounts of sensitive data on their drivers and passengers

US Police clear out pro-Palestinian protest camp, arrest 33 at DC campus

Police using pepper spray cleared a pro-Palestinian tent encampment at George Washington University and arrested dozens of demonstrators on Wednesday just as city officials were set to appear before hostile lawmakers in Congress to account for their handling of the 2-week-old protest. The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability cancelled the hearing after the crackdown, with its chairman and other Republicans welcoming the police action. House Speaker Mike Johnson said it should not require threatening to haul D.C.'s mayor before Congress to keep Jewish students at George Washington University safe. District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, said she and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith decided to clear the camp based on shifting information about increased threats. Our response to demonstrations is always rooted in public safety and responsibility, the mayor said. Smith said there were signs the protest was becoming more volatile and less stable. Among them

US chip production capacity may treble by 2032, says industry group

The Washington-based SIA, which lobbied hard for the Chips Act, is eager to show that the legislation is paying off. It also wants the government to devote more funding to the cause

US revokes Intel, Qualcomm's export licenses to sell to China's Huawei

The move comes after the release last month of Huawei's first AI-enabled laptop, the MateBook X Pro powered by Intel's new Core Ultra 9 processor

US eyes restrictions on China's access to AI behind apps like ChatGPT

Government and private sector researchers worry U.S. adversaries could use the models, which mine vast amounts of text and images to summarize information and generate content

Has Israel violated laws in Gaza war? US to answer soon in crucial verdict

Biden administration likely to deliver verdict this week on whether Israeli airstrikes in Gaza and restrictions on aid delivery violate international and US laws

US stops bomb delivery to Israel, signaling worries over Rafah invasion

The US paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the US, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of US concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting. More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel's war on Hamas, which came after the militant group's deadly attack on Israel on October 7. President Joe Biden's administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance to Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from

US, Oz and Philippine forces sink a ship during war drills in S China Sea

Military force from the United States, Australian and the Philippines launched a barrage of high-precision rockets, artillery fire and airstrikes to sink a ship Wednesday as part of largescale war drills in waters facing the disputed South China Sea that have antagonized Beijing. Military officials and diplomats from several countries, along with journalists, watched the display of firepower from a hilltop along a sandy coast in Laoag City on Wednesday in Ilocos Norte, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s northern home province. More than 16,000 military personnel from the United States and the Philippines, backed by a few hundred Australian troops and military observers from 14 countries were participating in annual combat-readiness drills called Balikatan, Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder, which started on April 22 and will end on Friday. It's the latest indication of how the United States and the Philippines have bolstered a defense treaty alliance that started in the ...

'Closing of Kerem Shalom, Rafah set back delivery of humanitarian aid': US

Amid mounting airstrikes, the Israeli Prime Minister's Office reaffirmed the continuation of military operations in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas

GenZ Indian-American running for Georgia State Senate raises over $280K

Ashwin Ramaswami, the first Gen Z Indian-American running for a US State legislature, has raised over USD 280,000, which is considered to be a substantial figure at the state level. Ramaswami, 24, has outraised his incumbent opponent Shawn Still by 22 times in the latest filing period from Feb 1 to April 30. While Ramaswami raised over USD 146,000, his opponent raised only USD 6,400. The two are running for the State Senate in the District 48 of Georgia. According to the latest public campaign finance report, Ramaswami has raised a total of over USD 280,000 and has USD 208,000 cash on hand, his campaign said. Our latest reports are further evidence that our community values honesty and integrity in our leadership above all, said Ramaswami, a second-generation Indian-American who has built a career in software engineering, election security, and technology law and policy research. We've built a grassroots campaign with unprecedented momentum to ensure we elect a leader who will ser

Israel seizes Gaza's Rafah crossing, US reassures it isn't full invasion

Israeli troops seized control of Gaza's vital Rafah border crossing on Tuesday in what the White House described as a limited operation, as fears mount of a full-scale invasion of the southern city and talks with Hamas over a cease-fire and hostage release remain on a knife's edge. The United Nations (UN) warned of a potential collapse of the flow of aid to Palestinians from the closure of the Rafah crossing from Egypt and the other main crossing into Gaza, Kerem Shalom, from Israel, at a time when UN officials say northern Gaza is experiencing full-blown famine. The Israeli foray overnight came after hours of whiplash in the now 7-month-old Israel-Hamas war, with the militant group saying Monday it accepted a cease-fire proposal that Israel insisted fell short of its own core demands. The high-stakes diplomatic moves and military brinkmanship left a glimmer of hope alive for a deal to bring at least a pause in the war, which has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, according to ..

Apple interrogation of NYC worker about union drive illegal: US labor board

The Democrat-controlled board also affirmed the judge's ruling that Apple illegally barred workers at the World Trade Center store from distributing union flyers

Key debt ratio resumes rise as global debt burden hits record $315 trn: IIF

Debt in emerging markets grew to a record of more than $105 trillion - having more than doubled over the past decade according to IIF data

US seeks info from Tesla on how it verified if autopilot recall worked

The agency said it will evaluate whether driver warnings are adequate, especially when a driver-monitoring camera is covered

Japan describes US President Biden's 'xenophobia' comment as regrettable

Last week Biden said "xenophobia" in economies from China to Japan and India was hobbling their growth, while arguing at a Washington fund-raising event that migration has been good for the US

Storms bring tornadoes to Oklahoma, Kansas; forecasts warn more to come

Millions of people in the central United States must brace themselves for powerful storms that may include long-track tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and baseball-sized hail, forecasters said Monday, issuing a rare high risk warning for central Oklahoma and southern Kansas. Much of Oklahoma and parts of Kansas are at the greatest risk of bad weather including areas in Oklahoma, such as Sulphur and Holdenville, still recovering from a tornado that killed four and left thousands without power late last month. Both the Plains and Midwest have been hammered by tornadoes this spring. The National Weather Service said that more than 3.4 million people, 1,614 schools and 159 hospitals in Oklahoma, portions of southern Kansas and far north Texas, face the most severe threat for tornadoes. In all, nearly 10 million people live in areas that could be affected, the National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said. Schools and colleges across the state, including the University of ...

Waiting for results of India's probe into Pannun's murder, says US

The United States is waiting to see the results of the Indian investigations on allegations related to a plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US, a State Department official has said. "They (Indian government) opened a committee of inquiry to look into the matter, and that work is ongoing; we'll wait to see the results. But we made it very clear that it's something that we are taking seriously and we think they, too, should take this seriously," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference. Miller was responding to a question on the allegations that Indian government officials were involved in a plot to assassinate Pannun, a US citizen and a separatist Sikh leader. "I would refer you to the Canadian authorities to speak to the details of the investigation there. With respect to the indictment that was returned in the United States, I will let the Department of Justice speak on behalf of that in detail,"

Russia defends UN veto on space nuke ban, urges ban on all weapons

Russia on Monday defended its veto of a United Nations resolution urging all nations to prevent a nuclear arms race in outer space, challenging the US, Japan and their Western allies to support Moscow's rival resolution calling for a ban on all weapons in space "for all time". Russia's UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said the United States and Japan, which sponsored the vetoed resolution, are guilty of of hypocrisy and double standards. He accused the U.S. and Western nations more broadly of planning for the military exploration of outer space, including the deployment of weapons, in particular strike combat systems. US deputy ambassador Robert Wood countered, telling the U.N. General Assembly: The truth is that Russia currently has several conventional anti-satellite weapons already in orbit, one of which it tested in 2019. He added Russia has threatened to target satellites with weapons, and said there is credible information that Russia is developing a new satellite carrying a ..