North America

Large group of migrants force way across Texas border

HOUSTON, March 22, 2024 (AFP) – A “large group of migrants” crossing into the United States from Mexico broke through razor wire Thursday and rushed the border wall, the border patrol said, the latest episode in a simmering national immigration crisis. Illegal immigration is a hugely contentious topic in the United States, and an issue already figuring prominently in the campaign for the November presidential election. Republicans blame President Joe Biden for the recent record […]

Mississippi ‘Goon Squad’ officer jailed 20 years for racist attack

WASHINGTON, March 19, 2024 (AFP) – A former Mississippi policeman who carried out a brutal attack on two Black men with fellow white officers who called themselves the “Goon Squad” was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison. Hunter Elward, four other former members of the Rankin County Sheriff’s Department and a former member of the Richland Police Department pleaded guilty in August to multiple offenses. Elward, 31, who shot one of the men in […]

UN chief warns against ‘sequel to ‘Oppenheimer”

  UNITED NATIONS, United States, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Oscar-winning film “Oppenheimer” on Monday as he warned that the world faced the highest risk of nuclear war in decades. At a Security Council session called by Japan, Guterres said that the biopic about the morally conflicted father of the atomic bomb “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.” “Humanity cannot survive […]

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 […]