Page 26 - White House

Apple to fight watch ban in court after White House declines to act

Apple had already stopped selling its Series 9 and Ultra 2 watches in its online store and US retail outlets

US Steel sale to Japanese company warrants 'serious scrutiny': White House

President Joe Biden believes serious scrutiny is warranted for the planned acquisition of US Steel by Japan's Nippon Steel, the White House said Thursday after days of silence on a transaction that has drawn alarm from the steelworkers union. Lael Brainard, the director of the National Economic Council, indicated the deal would be reviewed by the secretive Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which she participates in and includes economic and national security agency representatives to investigate national security risks from foreign investments in American firms. She said in a statement that Biden believes the purchase of this iconic American-owned company by a foreign entity even one from a close ally appears to deserve serious scrutiny in terms of its potential impact on national security and supply chain reliability. This looks like the type of transaction that the interagency Committee on Foreign Investment Congress empowered and the Biden administration ...

Judge criticises Trump's witness, refuses request to toss fraud lawsuit

Former President Donald Trump has lost his latest bid to end the business fraud lawsuit he faces in New York as he campaigns to reclaim the White House. Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling on Monday denying the Republican's latest request for a verdict in his favour in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. And in doing so, the judge dismissed the credibility of one of Trump's expert witnesses at the trial, a professor who testified that he saw no fraud in the former president's financial statements. The trial is centred on allegations Trump and other company officials exaggerated his wealth and inflated the value of his assets to secure loans and close business deals. In the three-page ruling, Engoron wrote that the most glaring flaw of Trump's argument was to assume that the testimony provided by Eli Bartov, an accounting professor at New York University, and other expert witnesses would be accepted by the court as true and accurate. Bartov is a .

Hunter Biden indicted on tax charges in new criminal case: Report

Prosecutors working for Special Counsel David Weiss accused Hunter Biden of tax crimes from 2016 through 2019, including spending millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying tax

Those behind assassination plot need to be held accountable: US to India

India is a strategic partner for the United States, the White House has said as it urged New Delhi to hold accountable those responsible for the plot to assassinate a separatist Sikh leader, who is an American citizen. India is a strategic partner. We're deepening that strategic partnership. They're a member of the Quad in the Pacific. We participate with them on a range of issues and we want to see that continue unabated. That said, at the same time, we certainly recognise the seriousness of these allegations, National Security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at a White House news conference here. Kirby was responding to a question on the impact that the alleged plot would have on the bilateral India-US relationship. We want it fully investigated and those responsible to be held properly accountable, he said. It's under active investigation. We've said that we're glad that our Indian counterparts are taking it seriously and doing that. We want those responsible for these ...

US nearly out of funds for Ukraine aid, White House warns Congress

The Biden administration on Monday sent Congress an urgent warning about the need to approve tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kyiv's war effort to defend itself from Russia's invasion may grind to a halt without it. In a letter to House and Senate leaders and also released publicly, Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young warned the US will run out of funding to send weapons and assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, saying that would kneecap Ukraine on the battlefield. She added that the US already has run out of money that it has used to prop up Ukraine's economy, and if Ukraine's economy collapses, they will not be able to keep fighting, full stop. We are out of money and nearly out of time, she wrote. Biden has sought a nearly USD 106 billion aid package for Ukraine, Israel and other needs, but it has faced a difficult reception on Capitol Hill, where there is growing scepticism about the magnitude of ...

US praises India setting up probe on alleged plot to kill Sikh separatist

The White House on Thursday praised New Delhi for setting up its own investigations on the US allegations that an Indian official was involved in a plot to kill separatist Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The unnamed Indian official appeared in an indictment filed by federal prosecutors in a Manhattan court on Wednesday along with an Indian national, who the Department of Justice alleges hired someone in the US to assassinate Pannun, a vocal critic of India and espousing the cause of a separate Khalistan. "These allegations in this investigation, (we) take it very seriously. And we're glad to see that the Indians are too by announcing their own efforts to investigate this. And we've been clear that we want to see anybody that's responsible for these alleged crimes to be held properly accountable," John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, told reporters at a news conference here. However, this will not have an impac

Rosalynn Carter set for funeral, burial in the town where she was born

Rosalynn Carter will receive her final farewells on Wednesday in the same tiny town where she was born and that served as a home base as she and her husband, former President Jimmy Carter, climbed to the White House and spent four decades thereafter as global humanitarians. The former first lady, who died November 19 at the age of 96, will have her hometown funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where she and her husband spent decades welcoming guests when they were not travelling. The service comes on the last of a three-day public tribute that began on Monday in nearby Americus and continued in Atlanta. Rosalynn Carter will be buried in a plot she will one day share with her husband, the 99-year-old former president who first met his wife of 77 years when she was a newborn, a few days after his mother delivered her. She was born just a few years after women got the right to vote in this small town in the South where people were still plowing their fields behind mules, ...

White House opens accounts for Prez Biden, VP Harris on Meta's Threads

A White House spokeswoman, Robyn Patterson, said the reason for the move is because "we are committed to meeting people where they are."

White House slams Elon Musk for abhorrent promotion of antisemitism

The White House has slammed tech entrepreneur and billionaire Elon Musk for his abhorrent promotion of antisemitism and racist hate, while several top American companies like Apple have pulled out ads from his social media platform X. Musk, 52, on Wednesday endorsed a post on X that falsely claimed Jewish people were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user who referenced the "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory was speaking "the actual truth." The antisemitic conspiracy theory which posits that Jews want to bring undocumented minority populations into Western countries to reduce White majorities in those nations is often espoused by hate groups. It is unacceptable to repeat the hideous lie behind the most fatal act of antisemitism in American history at any time, let alone one month after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust, White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said. As President Biden said weeks ago memorialising the victims of the Pittsbur

Much ado about little

Biden-Xi talks yield modest outcomes

Biden appoints Indian American Shakuntla Bhaya to key position: Who is she?

US President Joe Biden has appointed Indian American Shakuntla L Bhaya to serve in a key role, the White House said. Bhaya was appointed as a member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States. It is among the several new appointments announced by Biden on Wednesday, the White House said. Bhaya is a co-owner of a statewide Delaware law firm, Law Offices of Doroshow, Pasquale, Krawitz & Bhaya. Her practice focuses on representing individuals who are seriously injured as a result of businesses and people making unsafe decisions, the White House said. For the last seven years, Bhaya has been a member of Governor Carney's Judicial Nominating Commission. In addition to practising law, Bhaya is very involved in Delaware politics. She is currently a member of the Delaware Democratic Party's State Executive Committee. Bhaya, past President of the Delaware Trial Lawyers Association, continues to be involved in protecting consumers' 7th Amendment Right to a jury ...

We have intelligence that Hamas militants shelter in Gaza hospitals: US

The US said Tuesday that it has unspecified intelligence that Hamas and another Palestinian militant group use some hospitals in the Gaza Strip including Shifa Hospital and tunnels underneath them, to hide and support their military operations, and to hold hostages. The White House's national security council spokesperson, John Kirby, said the US does not support strikes against hospitals. We do not support striking a hospital from the air, Kirby told reporters accompanying President Joe Biden aboard Air Force One to San Francisco for a summit with Asia-Pacific leaders. Hospitals and patients must be protected. Kirby said the US also does not want to see a firefight in a hospital where innocent people, helpless people, sick people are simply trying to get the medical care that they deserve. When asked about evidence to support the claim, Kirby said it comes from a variety of intelligence sourcing. He wouldn't be more specific.

Biden-Xi meet: White House expects possible military communications revival

US officials expressed hope Monday that this week's highly anticipated face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping will produce some concrete results, including the possible reestablishment of military communication between the two nations and a shared effort to combat illicit fentanyl trafficking. The two leaders will meet Wednesday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco. The Biden-Xi bilateral will be the marquee moment of the forum, which is dedicated to promoting trade, investment and economic development among nations around the Pacific Ocean. Biden and Xi have not spoken in a year. Their last meeting was at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia last fall. And since then, tensions between the two nations have grown following a series of events touched off by the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that had wafted across the US earlier this year. The frosty relationship between the two economic ...

US govt announces steps to free up more wireless spectrum for advanced tech

The White House has said additional spectrum is key to next-generation wireless service and a variety of advanced technology, infrastructure and government needs

Trump's plans if he returns to White House include raids, tariffs, firings

A mass deportation operation. A new Muslim ban. Tariffs on all imported goods and "freedom cities" built on federal land. Much of the 2024 presidential campaign has been dominated by the myriad investigations into former President Donald Trump and the subsequent charges against him. But with less than a year until Election Day, Trump is dominating the race for the Republican nomination and has already laid out a sweeping set of policy goals should he win a second term. His ideas, and even the issues he focuses on most, are wildly different from President Joe Biden's proposals. If implemented, Trump's plans would represent a dramatic government overhaul arguably more consequential than that of his first term. His presidency, especially the early days, was marked by chaos, infighting and a wave of hastily written executive orders that were quickly overturned by the courts. Some of his current ideas would probably end up in court or impeded by Congress. But Trump's campaign and allied

Israel agrees to 4-hour daily pauses in Gaza to allow civilians to flee

The White House said Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza starting on Thursday, as the Biden administration said it has secured a second pathway for civilians to flee fighting. President Joe Biden had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to institute the daily pauses during a Monday call. US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the first humanitarian pause would be announced Thursday and that the Israelis had committed to announcing each four-hour window at least three hours in advance. Israel, he said, also was opening a second corridor for civilians to flee the areas that are the current focus of its military campaign against Hamas, with a coastal road joining the territory's main north-south highway. Biden also told reporters that he had asked the Israelis for a pause longer than three days during negotiations over the release of some hostages held by Hamas, though he said the

US working to combat Islamophobia, but many Muslim Americans skeptical

President Joe Biden's administration is developing a national strategy to combat Islamophobia as the White House faces skepticism from many Muslim Americans for its staunch support of Israel's military assault on Hamas in Gaza. Plans for the initiative, which the White House billed as the first of its kind, were announced Wednesday. It is meant to bring together lawmakers, advocacy groups and other community leaders with the administration in order to counter the scourge of Islamophobia and hate in all its forms, the White House said. Moving forward, the President, Vice President, and our entire Administration will continue working to ensure every American has the freedom to live their lives in safety and without fear for how they pray, what they believe, and who they are, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement announcing the strategy. The White House originally was expected to announce its plans to develop the strategy last week when Biden met with Musli

Biden nominates top adviser on Asia to be State Department's No. 2 diplomat

President Joe Biden is nominating a top adviser on Asia to serve as the State Department's second-ranking diplomat, the White House said Wednesday, elevating one of the architects of the administration's efforts to develop a more Asia-focused foreign policy. Kurt Campbell currently is deputy assistant to the president and coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the National Security Council. He has played an important role in helping Biden reinvigorate the diplomatic grouping of the United States, Japan, Australia and India, and has helped to ease historic tensions between South Korea and Japan and shape America's approach to China. If confirmed, he would replace Wendy Sherman, who retired in July, as deputy secretary of state. Kurt is a tremendous asset, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement. His passion and commitment to our alliances and partnerships is unquestionably strengthening America's strategic position in the world and improving our abili

Donald Trump promises to revive Muslim ban, gets slammed by White House

Former US President Donald Trump has vowed to revive a controversial travel ban on people from some Muslim-majority countries if he is elected to a second White House term. While speaking at the annual summit of the Republican Jewish Coalition on Saturday, Trump, 77, said: "You remember the travel ban?" "On day one, I will restore our travel ban. We had a travel ban because we didn't want people coming into our country who really love the idea of blowing our country up." He said the travel ban imposed during his administration was an amazing success. "We didn't have one incident in four years because we kept bad people the hell out of our country. We kept them out. We didn't have one, not one instance," Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, said. In 2017, at the start of Trump's presidency, he imposed sweeping restrictions on the entry of travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and, initially, Iraq and Sudan. The White House immediately sl