By Alex PIGMAN Agence France-Presse SAN FRANCISCO, June 22, 2023 (AFP) – The EU commissioner in charge of enforcing Europe’s new landmark rules on online content is heading to San Francisco on Thursday to ensure that the big platforms are ready. The two-day visit by Thierry Breton comes just weeks before the European Union’s Digital Service Act (DSA) comes into full force for the world’s biggest platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, […]
Tag: US
US rolls out red carpet for Modi even as criticism grows
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2023 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday opened a state visit to Washington as the United States steps up its wooing of India despite simmering disagreements on Ukraine and human rights. President Joe Biden is putting on the full pomp for only the third state visitor of his administration, with the billion-plus country seen as a pivotal partner in a growing global competition with China. Modi — flying in […]
Rescuers in all-night race to save Titanic sub crew
BOSTON, June 22, 2023 (AFP) – A massive search and rescue effort for a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic was at a critical stage late Wednesday, with just hours left before the oxygen supply for the five people on board runs out. While coast guard officials insisted they remained “hopeful,” with a surge of assets and experts joining the operation and sonar picking up unidentified underwater noises, the challenge of locating and […]
Pregnant US woman fatally shot by toddler son
WASHINGTON, June 22, 2023 (AFP) – A pregnant woman and her unborn child died last week in the US state of Ohio after her two-year-old son shot her in the back with a handgun left loaded in the house, police said. Police chief David Smith told local media on Tuesday that 31-year-old Laura Ilg had called 911 on the afternoon of June 16. “She explained she was 33 weeks pregnant and her two-year-old had accidentally […]
Biden equates China’s Xi with ‘dictators’ at donor reception
SAN FRANCISCO, June 21, 2023 (AFP) — US President Joe Biden equated his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping with “dictators” on Tuesday as he addressed a Democratic Party donors reception in the presence of journalists. Speaking at a campaign fundraiser in northern California, Biden said Xi had been angered over an incident in February when a Chinese balloon — which Washington says was used for spying — flew over the United States before being shot down […]
Four dead after latest New York e-bike fire
NEW YORK, June 20, 2023 (AFP) – Four people have died after lithium batteries for e-bikes sparked a fire in a New York building, officials said Tuesday, sounding the alarm over the skyrocketing number of such incidents. The fire broke out overnight in a maintenance shop for electric bicycles and scooters, on the ground floor of a building in Chinatown. A large pile of blackened two-wheelers was seen strewn outside the charred facility on Tuesday, […]
Influencer Andrew Tate indicted for human trafficking in Romania
BUCHAREST, June 20, 2023 (AFP) – Online influencer Andrew Tate, his brother and two Romanian women were indicted in Romania on human trafficking and rape charges, prosecutors said Tuesday, six months after they were detained. The anti-organised crime prosecution’s unit (DIICOT) “ordered the indictment” of the four defendants for offences including “setting up an organised criminal group… trafficking in persons… rape”, they said. Romanian police arrested Tate, 36, and his brother Tristan, 34, and two […]
China, US see progress in Blinken visit but close no gaps
By Shaun TANDON Agence France-Presse BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping said Monday he saw headway in the strained relationship with the United States on a rare visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, but the rival powers remained at odds over their core disputes. In a symbolic sign of lowering the temperature after soaring tensions, President Xi received Blinken in the vast Great Hall of the People and said the two powers […]
Submersible exploring Titanic wreck missing over 24 hours
By Joseph Prezioso Agence France-Presse BOSTON, June 19, 2023 (AFP) – US and Canadian coast guard teams were racing Monday to locate and rescue a submersible tourist vessel with five people aboard that went missing on a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage in the North Atlantic. The 21-foot (6.5-meter) craft, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, began its descent early Sunday and lost contact with the surface less than two hours later. One of those on board […]
China, US must choose between ‘cooperation or conflict’, top diplomat tells Blinken
BEIJING, June 19, 2023 (AFP) — China and the United States must choose between “cooperation or conflict”, Beijing’s top diplomat told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday, state media reported. “It is necessary to make a choice between dialogue and confrontation, cooperation or conflict,” Wang Yi told Blinken during a meeting in Beijing, according to a readout from Chinese state media. Blinken spoke to Wang — whose position in the Communist Party ranks […]
Blinken begins rare Beijing visit in bid to lower temperature
BEIJING, June 18, 2023 (AFP) – Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday began the highest-level trip by a US official to China in nearly five years as the two powers looked to notch down the temperature in an escalating rivalry. Both sides have voiced guarded hope of improving communication and preventing conflict, with the world’s two largest economies at odds on an array of issues from trade to technology and regional security. Officials though […]
US trafficking report highlights forced labor, exploited boys
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Thursday denounced the scourge of human trafficking, calling out forced labor and the little-known but growing problem of boys and young men caught up the trade. The condemnation came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken presented a report on what he called “concerning trends” in human trafficking. Blinken blasted the rise in forced labor as worldwide supply chains were disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. “Exploitative […]





