North America

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 […]

US embrace of remote working empties offices, weighs on banks

By Julie CHABANAS WASHINGTON, March 10, 2024 (AFP) – The popularity of remote work in the United States has emptied office buildings, a cause for worry as their value falls and owners risk losses on property loans — in turn putting pressure on smaller banks. “There will be bank failures, but this is not the big banks,” said US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday. In San Francisco, Washington and even New York, offices […]

Ottawa stabbing: family of Sri Lankan origin murdered in their home

OTTAWA, March 7, 2024 (AFP) – A 19-year-old student was arrested after four young children and two adults were found dead at a suburban home near Canada’s capital city Ottawa, police said Thursday. Police said they rushed to a home in the Ottawa suburb of Barrhaven after receiving a call at 11:00 pm Wednesday evening (0400 GMT Thursday). At the scene, police discovered the bodies of four children, their 35-year-old mother and a 40-year-old man, […]

Trump offers lukewarm, glitchy response to Biden criticism

By Frankie TAGGART WASHINGTON, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – He didn’t mention Donald Trump by name in his State of the Union address but there was no mistaking President Joe Biden’s target as he tore into his predecessor from the outset as an enemy of democracy and the liberal world order. Trump’s heavily-promoted live “play-by-play” response to an extended barrage of criticism turned out to be a damp squib — beset by technical gremlins and […]

Biden attacks Trump in fiery State of Union speech

By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – President Joe Biden launched a scorching attack on his “dangerous” November presidential election rival Donald Trump in Thursday’s State of the Union address, warning that US democracy is under “assault.” In the dramatic start to the speech, Biden said he wanted to “wake up the Congress and alert the American people” to the danger. “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War, have freedom and democracy […]

Biden attacks Trump, warns US democracy at risk in State of Union speech

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – President Joe Biden launched a fiery attack on his “dangerous” November presidential election rival Donald Trump in Thursday’s State of the Union address, warning that US democracy is under “assault.” In the dramatic start to the speech, Biden said he wanted to “wake up the Congress and alert the American people” to the danger. “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War, have freedom and democracy been under assault […]

Bashing Trump, Biden vows ‘I won’t bow down’ to Russia

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden vowed Thursday he will not “bow down” to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, fiercely criticizing rival Donald Trump in his State of the Union address. From the very first moments of his annual address, Biden lashed out at his predecessor and presumed Republican rival in November elections and urged the divided Congress to approve stalled military aid to Ukraine. “Putin of Russia is on the march, […]

US soldier arrested for selling defense secrets to China

A US Army intelligence analyst was arrested on Thursday for allegedly providing national defense information to China. Sergeant Korbein Schultz, who held a top-secret security clearance, was taken into custody at Fort Campbell, a military base on the Kentucky-Tennessee border, the Justice Department said in a statement. Schultz’ indictment did not identify the country he was allegedly supplying with sensitive military information, but press reports identified it as China. According to the indictment, Schultz, since […]

US-to-Japan Boeing passenger jet loses wheel during takeoff, makes emergency landing in LA

  LOS ANGELES, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – A Boeing 777 jetliner bound for Japan had to make an emergency landing shortly after takeoff Thursday, after a wheel fell off and plunged into an airport parking lot. Video posted online shows the wheel dropping seconds after the United Airlines plane gets off the ground at San Francisco International Airport. The wheel bounced into a car park used by airport employees, the local KRON4 outlet reported, […]

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch to marry girlfriend Elena Zhukova at 92

NEW YORK, March 8, 2024 (AFP) – Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is not giving up on love — even at age 92. Murdoch announced Thursday that he plans to wed his girlfriend, Elena Zhukova, in June, The New York Times reported. Murdoch has been married four times before. His roller-coaster personal life is often fodder for the tabloid newspaper industry that he helped create on three continents. Last year, Murdoch announced his engagement to dental […]

Biden to slam Trump ‘revenge and retribution’ in high-stakes speech

By Danny KEMP WASHINGTON, March 7, 2024 (AFP) – US President Joe Biden will use his State of the Union address Thursday to attack election rival Donald Trump for plotting “revenge and retribution” while offering skeptical voters his own vision of an American comeback. In one of the most important speeches of his long political career, the 81-year-old Democrat will try to ease concerns about his age by painting himself as the only alternative to […]