North America

Biden to host Philippines, Japan leaders to counter China

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden will hold the first three-way summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan next month, the White House said Monday, as the United States boosts alliances against China. Biden’s meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the White House on April 11 is the latest in a series of meeting with Asia-Pacific […]

Trump hails election as ‘most important date’ in US history

VANDALIA, United States, March 17, 2024 (AFP) – Donald Trump told a rally in Ohio on Saturday that November’s presidential election will be the “most important date” in US history, painting his campaign for the White House as a turning point for the country. Days after securing his position as the presumptive Republican nominee, the former president also warned of a “bloodbath” if he is not elected — though it was not clear what he […]

Biden roasts Trump at Washington press dinner

WASHINGTON, March 17, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden joked about Donald Trump and his own age at an annual media dinner on Saturday — before unloading deadly serious criticisms of his rival in November’s election. “One candidate’s too old and mentally unfit to be president,” the 81-year-old Democrat quipped at the Gridiron Club in Washington. “The other guy’s me.” Democrat Biden was making his first speech as president at the annual white tie […]

US Senate declines to fast-track TikTok bill

WASHINGTON, March 15, 2024 (AFP) – A bill that would force the sale of TikTok from its Chinese owners or see it banned in the United States will move cautiously in the US Senate, key lawmakers said, after it sailed through the House. The bill’s whirlwind House passage on Wednesday, and its backing from US President Joe Biden, had raised alarm bells that the app, used by 170 million in the United States, could be […]

US Senate leader calls for new Israeli elections amidst Gaza conflict criticism

By Frankie TAGGART WASHINGTON, March 14, 2024 (AFP) – The leader of the US Senate called Thursday for Israel to hold new elections in the most strident criticism yet by a senior American official of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s handling of the war in Gaza. The rebuke from Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish American in history, came amid increased pressure from President Joe Biden over the mounting death toll in the conflict, sparked by […]

Rats in US police headquarters ‘high’ from eating seized marijuana

As New Orleans police seize marijuana, they can’t stop some inside the department headquarters from consuming the confiscated stash. It’s not officers they’re having trouble with, but rather rats that have infested the building for years. “The rats are eating our marijuana,” Anne Kirkpatrick, police chief in the southern US city said. “They’re all high.” Kirkpatrick made her comments speaking to a city council meeting earlier this week, according to local media. Rats and cockroaches […]

‘Man in iron lung’ dead at 78: family

A polio survivor known as the “man in the iron lung” has died aged 78, according to his family and a fundraising website. Paul Alexander of Dallas, Texas contracted polio at the age of six, leaving him paralyzed from the neck down and reliant on a mechanical respirator to breathe for much of the time. Though often confined to his submarine-like cylinder, he excelled in his studies, earned a law degree, worked in the legal […]

China says US TikTok vote follows ‘logic of a bandit’

BEIJING, March 14, 2024 (AFP) – China blasted Washington’s “bandit” mentality Thursday after the US House passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless it splits from its Chinese owner, and vowed to “take all necessary measures” to protect the interests of its companies overseas. The short-video app has soared in popularity worldwide but its ownership by Chinese technology giant ByteDance — and alleged subservience to Beijing’s ruling Communist Party — has fuelled concern in […]

US House overwhelmingly passes TikTok ban bill

By Alex Pigman Agence France-Presse (AFP) — The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill on Wednesday that would force TikTok to divest from its Chinese owner or get banned from the United States. The lawmakers voted 352 in favor of the proposed law and 65 against, in a rare moment of bipartisan unity in politically divided Washington. The legislation threatens to be a major setback for the video-sharing app, which has surged in […]

Trump, Biden clinch enough delegates for US presidential nomination

By Elijah Nouvelage Agence France-Presse (AFP) — Joe Biden and rival Donald Trump each won enough delegates Tuesday to clinch their party nominations in the 2024 presidential race, all but assuring a rematch and setting up one of the longest election campaigns in US history. The results in four statewide elections Tuesday, the latest in the months-long march to determine the Democratic and Republican party flagbearers, were essentially a foregone conclusion as incumbent Biden and […]

TikTok dragged into US election as Trump opposes ban

By Alex Pigman Agence France-Presse (AFP) — In a major reversal, former US president Donald Trump on Monday said he was against a ban of TikTok as the fate of the popular video-sharing app was dragged into the US election campaign. Years of on-and-off attempts of banning the Chinese owned app have resurged in the United States with the introduction of a bill in Congress that could see the app forced to cut ties with […]