Page 43 - Us Government

US court rejects last-minute bid to halt Donald Trump's hush money trial

A New York appeals court judge on Friday rejected a last-minute bid by Donald Trump to halt his hush money criminal trial over defense complaints that jury selection was unfairly rushed. Justice Marsha Michael issued the ruling just minutes after a brief hearing. The arguments in the mid-level appeals court came hours after the jury selection process concluded in Trump's criminal trial, which is currently taking place roughly two miles south. The ruling will allow opening arguments to take place as soon as Monday in Trump's criminal trial.

US sanctions 3 China firms for providing ballistic missile tech to Pak

The US has imposed sanctions on three China-based companies and one from Belarus for supplying missile-applicable items for Pakistan's ballistic missile programme, including its long-range missile programme, the State Department has said. The name of the companies are Xi'an Longde Technology Development, Tianjin Creative Source International Trade and Granpect Co. Ltd from China and Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant from Belarus. These entities have engaged in activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a risk of materially contributing to, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or their means of delivery, including any efforts to manufacture, acquire, possess, develop, transport, transfer or use such items, by Pakistan, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Friday. Miller said the US is committed to strengthening the global nonproliferation regime by taking action to disrupt procurement networks supporting proliferation activities of ...

Baltimore bridge collapse: Crews to remove debris from ship's deck

Salvage crews at the site of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore are turning their focus to the thousands of tons of debris sitting atop the Dali, a massive cargo ship that veered off course and caused the deadly catastrophe last month. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 tons of steel and concrete landed on the ship's deck after it crashed into one of the bridge's supporting columns and toppled the span, officials said at a news conference Friday. Crews will have to remove all that before refloating the stationary ship and guiding it back into the Port of Baltimore. Officials displayed overhead photos of the ship with an entire section of fallen roadway crushing its bow. So far, cranes have lifted about 120 containers from the Dali, with another 20 to go before workers can build a staging area and begin removing pieces of the mangled steel and crumbling concrete. The ship was laden with about 4,000 containers and headed for Sri Lanka when it lost power shortly after leaving

Central banks globally struggle to keep up with US Fed's rate cut timeline

IMF officials urged Asian central banks to stick to their own knitting and avoid the temptation to lash their policy decisions too closely to anticipated moves by the Fed

US govt aims to begin new North Korea sanctions monitoring regime by May

Russia rejected the annual renewal of the panel last month, while China abstained from the vote

Jury chosen in Trump's hush-money case, and other trial takeaways

Trump, who faces three other criminal prosecutions, denies wrongdoing and claims the cases are part of a political 'which hunt' against him

US presidential elections: Trump faces criminal case for poll interference

Donald Trump lost a bid Thursday to pause a string of lawsuits accusing him of inciting the U.S. Capitol attack, while the former president fights his 2020 election interference criminal case in Washington. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta in Washington denied defense lawyers' request to put the civil cases seeking to hold Trump responsible for the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on hold while the criminal case accusing him of conspiring to overturn his election defeat to President Joe Biden plays out. It's the latest legal setback for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, whose trial in a separate criminal case related to hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign began this week with jury selection in New York. The lawsuits brought by Democratic lawmakers and police officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 seek civil damages for harm they say they suffered during the attack, which aimed to stop Congress' certification of Biden's victory. Trump has claimed he can't be sued o

Donald Trump hush money trial: Jury selection encounters setbacks

Jury selection in Donald Trump 's hush money case encountered setbacks Thursday as two previously sworn-in jurors were excused one after backtracking on whether she could be impartial and fair and the other over concerns that he may not have been truthful about whether he had ever been accused or convicted of a crime. Seven jurors were sworn in on Tuesday, but with the excusal of two of them, lawyers now need to pick 13 others including six alternates to serve on the panel that will decide the first-ever criminal case against a former U.S. president. Prosecutors on Thursday also asked Judge Juan M. Merchan to sanction Trump over seven more social media posts they say violate a gag order that bars Trump from attacking witnesses. The prosecution on Monday sought a $3,000 fine against Trump over three Truth Social posts. Questioning of a second wave of prospective jurors began mid-morning. Over half of the group of 96 people was excused after saying they couldn't serve. Trump has

US envoy vows support for Japanese families abducted, taken to N Korea

America stands with Japan until all the Japanese abducted by North Korea decades ago return home to end their painful separation, United States ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said ON Thursday in Tokyo. Japan says North Korea abducted at least 17 Japanese citizens, possibly many more, to train them as agents during the 1970s and 1980s. Twelve remain missing. They include teenage students and others living along Japan's coasts, and many were bundled into small boats and taken across the sea to North Korea. Thomas-Greenfield began her Japan visit by meeting with families of those kidnapped. The United Stats stands with all the families, with all of Japan and with the international community in pressing for a resolution that will allow all families separated by the regime's policies to be reunited, she said at the outset of her meeting with five relatives of the abductees and a representative from their support group at the Prime Minister's Office. I'm all too

Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders more likely to believe in climate change

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are more likely than the overall adult population to believe in human-caused climate change, according to a new poll. It also suggests that partisanship may not have as much of an impact on this group's environmental views, compared to Americans overall. A recent poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 84% of AAPI adults agree climate change exists. In comparison, 74% of U.S. adults hold the same sentiment. And three-quarters of AAPI adults who accept climate change is real attribute it entirely or mostly to human activity. Among the general U.S. adult population surveyed in an AP-NORC poll in September, only 61% say humans are causing it. The poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, whose views can usually not be highlighted in other surveys because of small sample sizes and lack of .

Full UN membership won't help Palestinians with statehood: US envoy

US President Joe Biden had categorically said that Washington supported a two-state solution and was working on the ground to get that in place as soon as possible, she said

US contemplates more Iran sanctions; Israel war cabinet to meet again

An Israeli government source said the war cabinet session scheduled for Tuesday had been put off until Wednesday, without elaborating

US mulling options 'both inside and outside the UN' to monitor N Korea

The United States and its allies are discussing options both inside and outside the UN system to create a new mechanism for monitoring North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme, the American ambassador to the United Nations said on Wednesday. Russia last month vetoed a UN resolution in a move that effectively abolished monitoring by UN experts of Security Council sanctions against North Korea, which prompted Western accusations that Moscow was acting to shield its arms purchases from North Korea to fuel its war in Ukraine. I look forward to engaging with both the Republic of Korea and Japan, but like-minded (countries) as well, on trying to develop options both inside the UN as well as outside the UN. The point here is that we cannot allow the work that the panel of experts were doing to lapse, US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a news conference in Seoul, using the formal name for South Korea. Thomas-Greenfield didn't provide specific details about US discussions with

Bob Graham, two-term former US senator and Florida governor, dies at 87

Former US Sen. and two-term Florida Gov. Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee in the aftermath of the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 87. Graham's family announced the death on Tuesday in a statement posted on X by his daughter Gwen Graham. We are deeply saddened to report the passing of a visionary leader, dedicated public servant, and even more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, the family said. Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, made an unsuccessful bid for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, emphasising his opposition to the Iraq invasion. But his bid was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003, and he was never able to gain enough traction with voters to catch up, bowing out that October. He didn't seek reelection in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez. Graham was a man of many quirks. He perfected the

US court rejects request by tribes to block $10 bn project in Arizona

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a request by Native American tribes and environmentalists to stop work on a USD 10 billion transmission line being built through a remote southeastern Arizona valley that will carry wind-generated electricity from New Mexico to customers as far away as California. The project approved in 2015 following a lengthy review has been touted as the biggest US electricity infrastructure undertaking since the Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s. Two tribes joined with archaeologists and environmentalists in filing a lawsuit in January, accusing the US Interior Department and Bureau of Land Management of refusing for nearly 15 years to recognise overwhelming evidence of the cultural significance of the remote San Pedro Valley to Native American tribes including the Tohono O'odham, Hopi, Zuni and San Carlos Apache Tribe. The suit was filed after Pattern Energy received approval to transmit electricity generated by its SunZia wind farm in central New Mexico .

India's growth dependent on global interdependence: Ex-US trade official

: The current China situation presents an opportunity to be an alternative or additional node in global supply chains, a former US trade official said Tuesday and asserted that India's economic prosperity will be driven by its global interdependence in increasing trade and investments into and from India, helping drive job creation, GDP growth and prosperity. The former official said as India becomes the third largest economy in nominal GDP and as the Indian middle class grows to become larger and with higher incomes, it will emerge as a significant market for US and global businesses. India's productive capacity will similarly find enhanced ways to serve global demand as we already see in technology, he said. India is a beneficiary of globalisation. Its economic prosperity will be driven by its global interdependence, in increasing trade and investments into and from India, helping drive job creation, GDP growth and prosperity. Today the global supply chain situation works in ...

Parts of Central US hit by storms, tornadoes strike in Kansas, Iowa

Strong storms caused damage in parts of the middle U.S. Tuesday and spawned tornadoes in Kansas and Iowa, including one that left two people hurt. An EF-1 tornado touched down shortly after 6 a.m. near the northeastern Kansas town of Richland, the National Weather Service said. The twister reached speeds of up to 100 mph (161 kph) and was on the ground for about 20 minutes, the service said. Two people were injured when their RV flipped over during the tornado. Details about the injuries were not immediately available. Buildings and trees also were damaged in the neighbouring town of Overbrook. In central Iowa, a barn was demolished and other buildings were damaged after a tornado touched down in a rural area of Dallas County. The weather service also reported ping pong ball-sized hail in Bloomfield, just north of the Missouri line. There were no immediate reports of injuries. The weather service said the central U.S. was under threat of severe weather through Tuesday. Thunderstorm

US house committee accuses China of fuelling fentanyl crisis in country

China is fuelling the fentanyl crisis in the US by directly subsidising the manufacturing of materials that are used by traffickers to make the drug outside the country, according to a report released Tuesday by a special House committee focused on countering the Chinese government. Committee investigators said they accessed a government website that revealed tax rebates for the production of specific fentanyl precursors as well as other synthetic drugs as long as those companies sell them outside of China. Through its actions, as our report has revealed, the Chinese Communist Party is telling us that it wants more fentanyl entering our country, said Rep Mike Gallagher, the Republican chairman of the special House committee. It wants the chaos and devastation that has resulted from the epidemic. In November, President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping announced a resumption of bilateral cooperation on counternarcotics with a focus on reducing the flow of precursor chemicals

After resolving WTO disputes, India opened up mkt for US: Biden admin

"Last June, India and the United States terminated six WTO disputes, and India agreed to remove retaliatory tariffs on several US products," US govt official said

Biden govt announces partnership with 50 nations to stifle future pandemics

The announcement comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics. Four years after the coronavirus pandemic