Page 4 - United States

It reflects 'compromises': US SEC defends settlement with Musk over Twitter

The SEC also said in a footnote that the settlement if approved will allow Musk to publicly deny its accusations, reflecting a recent policy change governing defendants who settle enforcement actions

'Now a classified space': Pentagon bars journalists from its press office

In another of a series of moves restricting media access at the Pentagon, the Defense Department has declared that its press office is now a classified space inaccessible to journalists. On X, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed the move, saying there was "nothing controversial" about it and that it came because speechwriters, who use classified material, were now occupying the space. "The Pentagon Press Office has been redesignated as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility due to speechwriters from the Office of the Secretary of War sharing the facility," Valdez wrote. "These speechwriters routinely handle classified material as a result, journalists will no longer be permitted to enter the office space. There's nothing controversial about that." The latest move, first reported by The Washington Post, took place against a backdrop of escalating tensions between the U.S. media and the second Trump administration, which has played out both in the public ar

India-US trade deal to reflect Washington's tariff changes: Piyush Goyal

Goyal said large parts of the agreement had already been finalised and that discussions were currently focused on a few remaining issues

No room for speculation till final outcome reached in talks with US: Iran

Araghchi stated that 'it is not possible to judge until a clear conclusion is reached; everything that is being said now is speculation and should not be taken seriously until it is certain'

Trump plans to appeal order allowing tariff refunds for all importers

Businesses big and small have started receiving tariff refunds after the US Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the constitutional authority to impose higher import taxes on goods from nearly every other country. The process could grind to a halt, however, after the Trump administration said Friday that it intended to appeal a federal judge's order to allow all companies that paid the invalidated duties to seek refunds, not just the ones that filed lawsuits. Until the Department of Justice informed the judge of its planned appeal, the refund system overseen by US Customs and Border Protection had been working fairly smoothly. Refunds reached the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12, about three weeks after importers and their customs brokers could start submitting claims through an online system, according to CBP. Applications for refunds totalling USD 85 billion - more than half of the USD 166 billion the agency estimated the government owes

US says it stopped another merchant ship attempting to breach Iran blockade

The US military has stopped another merchant vessel trying to break through the American blockade of Iranian ports, a US official with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday. The Gambia-flagged bulk carrier Lian Star ignored multiple warnings from US forces overnight as it tried to enter an Iranian port, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations. The ship was disabled by US aircraft in the Gulf of Oman and remains adrift there, the official said, adding that US forces have not boarded it. With the latest action, US military has stopped six ships trying to breach the blockade. One was allowed to proceed. The US launched the blockade on April 17 in response to Iran effectively closing the strait after the war began with US and Israeli strikes on February 28. A fragile ceasefire has held since April 7. Now the region and wider world await word on whether a deal is being reached to extend it by 60 days while new tal

Pete Hegseth reassures Pacific allies as he softens China threat rhetoric

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth assured Pacific allies on Saturday that Washington remained committed to the region, but toned down previous comments calling China a threat. Speaking to a group of world leaders, diplomats and top security officials at the Shangri-La defense conference in Singapore, Hegseth said that the region "has profound implications for US security and prosperity" and that Washington's priority was to "achieve a lasting and favorable balance of power in the Pacific." It was his second time addressing the forum. Last year, he raised the ire of Beijing by warning of rapidly developing threats from China, particularly its aggressive stance toward Taiwan. He said China is no longer just building up its military forces to take Taiwan, it's "actively training for it, every day." This year, however, the meeting comes only about two weeks after US President Donald Trump visited Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing, following which Trump called Xi a "great leader" and

Trump to hand Kennedy Center control to Congress after court setback

Trump decried the judge's ruling and said he would be 'working with Congress to transfer this failing Institution back to them so they can make a determination as to what to do with it'

Former California mayor pleads guilty to acting as agent of Chinese govt

A former Southern California mayor pleaded guilty on Friday to acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government. Eileen Wang, who stepped down as the mayor of Arcadia earlier this month, was charged in April with one count of acting in the United States as an illegal agent of a foreign government. She pleaded guilty to doing the bidding of Chinese officials by sharing articles favourable to Beijing, without prior notification to the US government as required by law. The 56-year-old was elected in November 2022 to a five-person city council, from which the mayor is selected on a rotating basis. Federal prosecutors say Wang's illegal conduct occurred from late 2020 to 2022. Arcadia city officials and Wang's attorneys have said it ended before she took office. Arcadia is located about 13 miles (21 kilometres) northeast of Los Angeles. The city of about 53,000 is majority Asian and has a high concentration of Chinese residents. Wang appeared in downtown LA federal court to enter he

US judge orders removal of Trump's name from Kennedy Center, blocks closure

A federal judge ruled on Friday that President Donald Trump's name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center and blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations -- the latest legal setback for Trump's efforts to leave his personal mark on the landscape of the nation's capital. US District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, DC, ruled that the Kennedy Center board's March 16 vote to close the facility was "ill-informed and seemingly preordained" with no regard for its legal obligations. The administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years, but Cooper's ruling halts those plans for now. "The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one," he wrote. Cooper also concluded that the board "overstepped its statutory bounds" by unilaterally adding Trump's name to the centre. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, h

Rubio thanks Pakistan for West Asia peace efforts after meeting counterpart

Rubio said both leaders 'agreed upon the importance of working together to further strengthen a meaningful partnership for better security'

Rubio's visit executes a good repair job for India and Asian Quad allies

The broad agenda of India-US cooperation has been reaffirmed, but emerging US-China bonhomie raises questions over the future of Quad

US labels Brazil's 2 biggest drug gangs as foreign terrorist organisations

The US State Department designated two Brazilian criminal groups as foreign terrorist organisations on Thursday. With Brazil's presidential election set to take place in October, supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro have called for the designation as they target President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's public security policies. The two gangs -- First Command of the Capital, or PCC, and Red Command, or CV -- likely have more than 50,000 members combined, according to experts. Designating criminal cartels in Latin America as foreign terrorist organisations is a strategy that Trump's administration has used as it turns to military activity and other aggressive steps to combat drug trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, notably carrying out a campaign of deadly boat strikes against those it calls "narcoterrorists" in the Caribbean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean. Lula, who is seeking reelection and is trying to boost his anti-crime credentials, has openly opposed labelling ...

6 more bodies recovered in Washington mill implosion; death toll at 11

Crews have recovered six of nine workers missing and presumed to be dead after a chemical tank rupture in Washington state, officials said on Thursday. The total death toll is 11, including three who are still missing. It is one of the deadliest US workplace accidents in recent decades. Officials say the paper mill tank ruptured and spilled more than 500,000 gallons (1.9 million litres) of a highly-destructive chemical mixture used in paper manufacturing at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company in Longview, a city along the Columbia River. Crews continued the painstaking search on Thursday for nine workers presumed dead after the chemical tank ruptured, devastating a community where many families have worked in the paper and lumber industries for generations. Authorities have said there was no hope of finding survivors of Tuesday's tank rupture at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company in Longview. Two workers were confirmed dead. Among the 11 victims were a grandfather who was alw

US rejects Iranian media's report on 'draft deal' to restore Hormuz traffic

The remark came after Iranian state television reported that Tehran had committed to restoring commercial transit through the Strait of Hormuz to pre-war levels within one month

US regulators poised to approve Paramount's takeover of Warner Bros

The Department of Justice staff attorneys seemed swayed by arguments from top Paramount executives that the deal would not hurt other studios and creative talent

Joe Biden sues Justice Department to block release of audio, transcripts

Joe Biden sued the Justice Department on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts of the former president's interview with a ghostwriter that were obtained by the special counsel who investigated his handling of classified documents. Biden's lawyers said in a lawsuit filed in Washington's federal court that the Justice Department plans to release the files to Congress and a conservative group, the Heritage Foundation, after the department had previously argued that they were exempt from disclosure under the public records law. Biden's lawyers argued that the disclosure would "constitute an unwarranted invasion of President Biden's privacy." "Every American, including a sitting or former Vice President, has a right to privacy in the personal conversations he has within his own home," his attorneys wrote. "And when the US Department of Justice obtains that private information through a criminal investigation, the Department bears a particular ...

1 dead, 9 missing in chemical tank implosion at Washington state mill

The implosion of a chemical tank at a pulp and paper mill in Washington state on Tuesday killed one person and nine others are unaccounted for, authorities said. Emergency responders were still working on recovery efforts at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Company in Longview, the Longview Fire Department said. Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein later told a news conference that it was unclear how many workers had been killed. Asked how many remained missing, he replied: "We have information on that, but we are not releasing that information." Among those injured was a responding firefighter. Authorities said some victims had suffered burns or inhalation injuries, and that the severity of the injuries ranged from minor to critical. There was no immediate threat to the public, they said. The statement, issued more than four hours after the tank imploded at 7:15 am, said crews were continuing recovery operations and that no identifying information would be released about victims

Pakistan's role as mediator problematic, says US senator Lindsey Graham

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham termed "problematic" the role of Pakistan as a mediator in the United States' war with Iran. Graham's remarks came as Pakistan's Defence Minister Khwaja Asif said he is not in favour of Islamabad joining the Abraham Accords, which deal with establishing diplomatic, economic and security ties between Israel and Arab nations. Asif also talked about his country's long-standing position to not accept Israel until the Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital is established. "It has been apparent to me for quite a while that Pakistan as a mediator is more than problematic. Their animosity towards Israel is long standing," Graham said in a post on X. He asked Pakistan to respond to US President Donald Trump's call to mediators in the US-Iran war to join the Accords. "As to the defence minister's comments about the Abraham Accords, saying that Pakistan would never join because they don't trust Israel: The clip may be a

Lessons from income surveys by other countries offer a blueprint for India

What India's statisticians will actually borrow from any of this, and how well they will replicate in the Indian context is, however, yet to be seen