Page 165 - United States

US probes if Tesla Autopilot recall did enough to make drivers attentive

The US government's auto safety agency is investigating whether last year's recall of Tesla's Autopilot driving system did enough to make sure drivers pay attention to the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says in documents posted on its website Friday that Tesla has reported additional crashes involving Autopilot since the recall, raising concerns at the agency about the effectiveness of the remedy. The recall involved more than 2 million vehicles, nearly all the vehicles that Tesla had sold at the time. The agency pushed the company to do the recall after a two-year investigation into Autopilot's driver monitoring system, which measures torque on the steering wheel from a driver's hands. The fix involves an online software update to increase warnings to drivers. But the agency said in documents that it has found evidence of crashes after the fix, and that Tesla added updates that weren't part of the recall. This investigation will consider why these update

Reviewing new info on Israeli unit accused of abuses before Gaza war: US

The US has determined that an Israeli military unit committed gross human-rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank before the war in Gaza began six months ago, but it will hold off on any decision about aid to the battalion while it reviews new information provided by Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson. The undated letter, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, defers a decision by the US whether to impose a first-ever block on US aid to an Israeli military unit over its treatment of Palestinians. Israeli leaders, anticipating the US decision this week, have angrily protested any such aid restrictions. Blinken stressed that US military support for Israel's defence against Hamas and other threats would not be affected by the State Department's final decision on the one unit. Johnson muscled through legislation providing USD 26 billion in additional funds for Israel's defense and for relief of the growing humanitaria

TikTok faces ban in US: Which countries have banned the app and why?

National security, data privacy and 'protecting youth from being misled' are among reasons cited

TikTok could soon be sold: What's next for Chinese app in the US?

US President Joe Biden signed into law a landmark bill that gives TikTok a tough choice: sell or be banned

Trump's lawyers will grill ex-tabloid publisher as first week of trial ends

After prosecutors' lead witness painted a tawdry portrait of catch and kill tabloid schemes, defense lawyers in Donald Trump's hush money trial are poised Friday to dig into an account of the former publisher of the National Enquirer and his efforts to protect Trump from negative stories during the 2016 election. David Pecker will return to the witness stand for the fourth day as defense attorneys try to poke holes in the testimony of the former National Enquirer publisher, who has described helping bury embarrassing stories Trump feared could hurt his campaign. It will cap a consequential week in the criminal cases the former president is facing as he vies to reclaim the White House in November. At the same time jurors listened to testimony in Manhattan, the Supreme Court on Thursday signaled it was likely to reject Trump's sweeping claims that he is immune from prosecution in his 2020 election interference case in Washington. But the conservative-majority high court seemed incline

Ex-tabloid publisher says he scooped up damaging tales to shield Trump

As Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, his old friend at the National Enquirer was scooping up potentially damaging stories about the candidate and paying out tens of thousands of dollars to keep them from the public eye. But when it came to the seamy claims by porn performer Stormy Daniels, David Pecker, the tabloid's longtime publisher, said he put his foot down. "I am not paying for this story," he told jurors on Thursday at Trump's hush money trial, recounting his version of a conversation with Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen about the catch-and-kill scheme that prosecutors alleged amounted to interference in the race. Pecker was already USD 180,000 in the hole on other Trump-related stories by the time Daniels came along, at which point, he said, "I did not want to be involved in this." Pecker's testimony was a critical building block for the prosecution's theory that their partnership was a way to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election. The Manhatta

USTR retains India in IP watchlist, says patents of particular concern

Six other countries such as China, Russia, Indonesia, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela continue to remain in the list

Judge rejects Trump's bid for new trial in $83.3 mn E. Jean Carroll case

A federal judge in New York rejected Donald Trump's request for a new trial on Thursday after a jury awarded USD 83.3 million in damages to a longtime magazine columnist who sued the former president for defamation for calling her claim that he had sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store a lie. The judge rejected the former president's claims that the compensatory and punitive damages awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll in January were excessive. The January verdict came after Carroll, 80, an author and former advice columnist for Elle magazine, testified that Trump's public statements about her had led to death threats. Judge Lewis Kaplan said in his ruling on Thursday that the jury was entitled to find that the degree of reprehensibility of Trump's attacks against Carroll on social media was high. Far from being purely defensive,' there was evidence that Mr. Trump used the office of the presidency the loudest 'bully pulpit' in America and possibly the world to issu

US, 17 other countries urge Hamas to release hostages, end Gaza crisis

The 18 countries all have citizens held by Hamas six months after the Palestinian militant group launched its Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel and killed 1,200 people

US DOJ plans to decide by late May if Boeing violated prosecution deal

Federal prosecutors had agreed to ask a judge to dismiss a criminal charge against Boeing so long as it complied with the deal's terms over a three-year period

Top US, Chinese naval officials discuss challenges in Indo-Pacific region

Top US and Chinese naval officials held a rare meeting in China on Wednesday amid the growing tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea and discussed the increasing security challenges" in the Indo-Pacific region. Admiral Stephen Koehler, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, met Admiral Yuan Huazhi, political commissar of the People's Liberation Army Navy, (PLAN) on the sidelines of the 19th Western Pacific Naval Symposium being organised by the Chinese navy at the coastal city of Qingdao. Koehler met Yuan to discuss increasing security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, a statement from the US Pacific Fleet, which provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command, said. Two days earlier, Koehler had met the commander of China's navy, Admiral Hu Zhongming, according to the statement. In meetings with Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) officials, Koehler discussed the importance of maintaining open lines of communication, operational safety and regional security concerns, the Hong

US business activity cools in April to 4-month low due to weaker demand

S&P Global said on Tuesday that its flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors

$8 bn US military aid package to Taiwan will boost confidence: Prez-elect

A USD 8 billion defence package approved by the US House of Representatives over the weekend will strengthen the deterrence against authoritarianism in the West Pacific ally chain, Taiwan's President-elect Lai Ching-te said Tuesday, in a reference to key rival China. The funding will also help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and also boost confidence in the region Lai, currently Taiwan's vice president, told visiting Michigan Representatives Lisa McClain, a Republican, and Democrat Dan Kildee at a meeting at the Presidential Office Building in the capital Taipei. In the face of authoritarian expansionism, Taiwan is determined to safeguard democracy and also safeguard our homeland, Lai said. Also known as William Lai, US-educated former medical researcher is despised by Beijing for his opposition to political unification with the mainland. In recent elections, the pro-unification Nationalists won a narrow majority in the legislature, but their influence on foreign

As Trump faces charges over 2 cases, is the hush money case a worthy proxy?

Former President Donald Trump faces serious charges in two separate cases over whether he attempted to subvert the Constitution by overturning the results of a fair election and illegally remain in power. Yet it's a New York case centred on payments to silence an adult film actress that might provide the only legal reckoning this year on whether he tried to undermine a pillar of American democracy. Trump is charged in the so-called hush money case with trying to falsify business records, but it was hard to tell that as the trial opened Monday. Lead prosecutor Matthew Colangelo wasted little time during opening statements tying the case to Trump's campaigning during his first run for the presidency. He said the payments made to Stormy Daniels amounted to "a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election." Whether the jury accepts that connection will be pivotal for Trump's fate. The presumptive nominee faces charges related to falsifying business records that would typica

Here's what the gag order mean in Donald Trump's hush money trial case

Here's why Justice Juan Merchan imposed the gag order and what it bars the Republican presidential candidate from doing

After firing 7, Starbucks takes on federal labour agency before US SC

After Starbucks fired seven workers who were trying to unionize their Tennessee store, a US government agency obtained a court order forcing the company to rehire them. Now, Starbucks wants the Supreme Court to curb the government's power in such cases. On Tuesday, justices are scheduled to hear Starbucks' case against the National Labour Relations Board, the federal agency that protects the right of employees to organise. If the court sides with Starbucks, it could make it tougher for the NLRB to step in when it alleges corporate interference in unionization efforts. The hearing comes even as the animosity between Starbucks and Workers United, the union organising its workers, has begun to fade. The two sides announced in February that they would restart talks with the aim of reaching contract agreements this year. Starbucks and union representatives planned to meet Tuesday for their first bargaining session in nearly a year. Workers at 420 company-owned US Starbucks stores have ..

US expresses 'troubling' concerns over Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza

The resulting conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has had a significant negative impact on the human rights status in Israel, the report said

US House votes for possible TikTok ban, but will the app go away soon

The House passed legislation on Saturday that would ban TikTok in the United States if the popular social media platform's China-based owner doesn't sell its stake within a year, but don't expect the app to go away anytime soon. The decision by House Republicans to include TikTok as part of a larger foreign aid package, a priority for President Joe Biden with broad congressional support for Ukraine and Israel, fast-tracked the ban after an earlier version had stalled in the Senate. A standalone bill with a six-month selling deadline passed the House in March by an overwhelming bipartisan vote as both Democrats and Republicans voiced national security concerns about the app's owner, the Chinese technology firm ByteDance Ltd. The modified measure now goes to the Senate after negotiations that produced a compromise. Even if the legislation becomes law, though, the company would have up to a year to find a buyer and would likely try to challenge the law in court, arguing it would depriv

US House passes first slice of $95 billion Ukraine, Israel aid package

leaders from Democratic President Joe Biden to top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell have been urging embattled House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring it up for a vote

Tesla cuts prices for 3 of its EV models in US following a difficult week

Tesla knocked USD 2,000 off the prices of three of its five models in the United States late Friday, another sign of the challenges facing the electric vehicle maker led by billionaire Elon Musk. The company cut the prices of the Model Y, a small SUV which is Tesla's most popular model and the top-selling electric vehicle in the US, and also of the Models X and S, its older and more expensive models. Prices for the Model 3 sedan and the Cybertruck stayed the same. The cuts reduced the starting price for a Model Y to USD 42,990 and to USD 72,990 for a Model S and USD 77,990 for a Model X. The move came the day after Tesla's stock tumbled below USD 150 per share, eliminating all gains made over the past year. The Austin, Texas, company's stock price has dropped about 40 per cent so far this year amid falling sales and increased competition. Discounted sticker prices are a way to try to entice more car buyers. Musk posted early Saturday on X, the social media platform known as Twitte