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MALÉ, Maldives, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – The next president of the Maldives is an ardent advocate of Chinese investment who promised to steer the luxury tourism hotspot back towards Beijing’s orbit if he wins. Mohamed Muizzu, 45, roundly defeated incumbent leader Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Saturday and is set to be sworn in on November 17. A British-educated civil engineer, he was an unlikely candidate for the presidency after serving as construction minister […]
By Maria DANILOVA WASHINGTON, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – Last-ditch moves to prevent a US government shutdown took a dramatic step forward Saturday, as Democrats overwhelmingly backed an eleventh-hour Republican measure to keep federal funding going for 45 days, albeit with a freeze on aid to Ukraine. The stopgap proposal adopted by the House of Representatives with a vote of 335-91 was pitched by Speaker Kevin McCarthy just hours before a midnight shutdown deadline that […]
WASHINGTON, Sept 30, 2023 (AFP) – The United States is heading toward a government shutdown this weekend with no foreseeable way out of a deadlock in Congress over hardline Republican calls for deep spending cuts. The new US fiscal year begins on October 1, but sharp disagreements in the Republican Party over the scale of federal debt has prevented passage of the bills needed to keep the government funded and open. The credit ratings agency […]
By Jim Watson with Danny Kemp in Washington TEMPE, United States, Sept 28, 2023 (AFP) – President Joe Biden launched a blistering personal attack on “extremist” Donald Trump Thursday, accusing his likely 2024 challenger of plotting to subvert the US constitution if he wins a return to power next year. The Democrat said in a speech in the battleground state of Arizona that Republican frontrunner Trump was driven by “vengeance and vindictiveness”, and he urged […]
WASHINGTON, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – A man was shot on Thursday in the southwestern US state of New Mexico during a protest against the installation of a statue of a Spanish conquistador, authorities and activists said. “Protesters and counter protesters had gathered… in response to the county’s plans to install a statue of Juan de Onate,” a statement from the city of Espanola read. Onate, who in the late 16th and early 17th centuries […]
By Xinqi SU HONG KONG, Sept 29, 2023 (AFP) – Hong Kong unionist Joe Wong had applied for permission to hold a Labour Day march, but cancelled his request to police in an abrupt U-turn after he briefly went missing. He cannot reveal what led to the change of heart, a result of a confidentiality clause in a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 to quell dissent. Three years after […]
By Camille Camdessus and Paul Handley WASHINGTON, Sept 27, 2023 (AFP) – The US Senate drafted a last-ditch short-term budget proposal Tuesday as time was running out for Congress to avoid a partial government shutdown, though the odds of it passing the House remained slim. With just days left before the September 30 deadline, both Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer and Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell endorsed the draft, which would keep the government […]
By Hossam EZZEDINE with Rosie SCAMMELL in Jerusalem RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories, Sept 26, 2023 (AFP) – Saudi Arabia on Tuesday sent its first delegation in three decades to the occupied West Bank to reassure Palestinians that it will defend their cause even as it forges closer ties with Israel. In a sign of the thaw, Israel’s Tourism Minister Haim Katz visited Riyadh on the same day, for the first such high-level public mission to the […]
By Julie Chabanas and Frankie Taggart WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2023 (AFP) – Millions of Americans braced Monday for pay and welfare checks to stop within days as Congress careened toward a damaging government shutdown, with Republican right wingers blocking attempts to pass a budget. Four months after barely avoiding the more serious prospect of a credit default, the world’s largest economy is once again on the verge of a convulsion, with the lights due to […]
By Julie Chabanas and Frankie Taggart WASHINGTON, Sept 25, 2023 (AFP) – Millions of Americans braced Monday for pay and welfare checks to stop within days as Congress careened toward a damaging government shutdown, with Republican right wingers blocking attempts to pass a budget. Four months after barely avoiding the more serious prospect of a credit default, the world’s largest economy is once again on the verge of a convulsion, with the lights due to […]
BANGKOK, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – Thailand’s jailed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra could act as advisor to the new government, the ruling party said Friday, a move likely to raise hackles among the billionaire’s critics. The 74-year-old, ousted by a military coup in 2006, returned to the kingdom last month and was immediately jailed for historic convictions for graft and abuse of power. New Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, of Thaksin’s Pheu Thai party, […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Sept 22, 2023 (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday warned Iran at the United Nations of a “nuclear threat” in what his office quickly walked back as a slip of the tongue. The hawkish prime minister said that alarm over Tehran’s clerical leaders was driving Israel closer to the Arab world, with his government on the “cusp” of a historic breakthrough with Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu, who has repeatedly […]
