San Francisco, United States | AFP | Friday 4/21/2023 Twitter has dropped “state-affiliated” and “government-funded” labels from media accounts, according to a review by AFP on Friday of many high-profile pages on the platform. Many major media outlets from Western nations, Russia, China and other countries that previously had either of those tags no longer displayed them, according to AFP. They included the accounts of National Public Radio in the United States, China’s official Xinhua […]
Tag: US
China blasts potential US investment curbs as ‘economic coercion’
Beijing accused the United States Friday of “naked economic coercion and technological bullying”, in response to Washington’s potential new restrictions on US firms’ ability to invest in Chinese entities. The Biden administration is considering a programme to restrict certain US outbound investments involving specific sensitive technology with significant national security implications. Beijing’s ambitions in the tech sector have already been hit by existing measures imposed by Washington and its allies, with Chinese authorities doubling down […]
Two dead after tornadoes, severe weather lash Oklahoma
Two people were killed in Oklahoma on Wednesday when tornadoes and severe weather ripped through the US state, local officials said. Emergency management authorities in the state’s south-central McClain county confirmed the deaths in a Facebook post, adding that search and rescue efforts were ongoing late into the night. “Crews are responding to reported injuries & persons entrapped within their shelters,” the post said. “We are conducting grid searches in an approximate 10 mile path.” […]
Biden to meet Philippines leader amid rising tension with China
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — President Joe Biden will welcome Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to the White House on May 1 in a sign of a warming bond between the two nations amid US tensions with China over Taiwan. Biden will reaffirm Washington’s “ironclad commitment to the defense of the Philippines, and the leaders will discuss efforts to strengthen the longstanding US-Philippines alliance,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. The White House […]
Los Angeles, United States | AFP | Friday 4/21/2023 – 02:48 UTC+2 | 624 words by Andrew MARSZAL Manslaughter charges against Alec Baldwin over a fatal shooting on a movie set are to be dropped, the prosecutor said Thursday, citing “new facts” that merit further investigation. Baldwin was charged in January over the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during the filming of the Western “Rust” in New Mexico in 2021, and pleaded not guilty. He […]
Biden, Macron talk to ease tensions after French leader’s China trip
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — US President Joe Biden and President Emmanuel Macron signaled efforts Thursday to ease tensions in the wake of the French leader’s recent remarks on Taiwan and the European security relationship with Washington. The White House and Elysee said in separate statements after the phone call that the leaders discussed Macron’s state visit in the first week of April to Beijing, where he spent several hours with President Xi Jinping. As […]
SpaceX Starship, world’s biggest rocket, explodes during first flight test
Starbase, United States | AFP | Thursday 4/20/2023 by Patrick Fallon with Chris Lefkow in Washington SpaceX’s Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, exploded on Thursday during the first test flight of the spacecraft designed to send astronauts to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The gigantic rocket successfully blasted off at 8:33 am Central Time (1333 GMT) from Starbase, the private SpaceX spaceport in Boca Chica, Texas. The Starship capsule had been scheduled to […]
Two Texas cheerleaders shot after one tried to enter wrong car
Washington, United States | AFP | Two cheerleaders were shot in a Texas parking lot after one mistakenly tried to enter the wrong car, part of a spate of similar incidents this week in the United States. The gunman fired multiple shots at the young women, seriously wounding one, police reported. The shooting early Tuesday came days after a Black teenager was shot in Missouri after ringing the wrong doorbell, and a young woman was […]
Fox faces stain of ‘disinformation engine’ despite settlement
by Anuj CHOPRA Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — Fox News averted a potentially humiliating defamation trial after a last-minute settlement Tuesday, but it took a reputational beating that observers said was unlikely to spur the influential broadcaster to tame its “disinformation engine.” The network, one of the most powerful and profitable in the United States, agreed to a $787.5 million settlement in a lawsuit launched by voting technology company Dominion over its coverage […]
Trinity the T-Rex claws in more than $6 million
(AFP) Zurich, Switzerland by James RYBACKI A composite Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton called Trinity, made up of bones from three different T-Rexes, sold for 5.5 million Swiss francs ($6.1 million) in a rare auction on Tuesday. The skeleton was sold at the Koller auction house in Zurich after being shipped from the United States in nine giant crates. Trinity fetched a hammer price of 4.8 million Swiss francs, rising to 5.5 million with the buyer’s premium […]
New York parking garage collapses, at least one dead and four injured
New York, United States | AFP | Tuesday 4/19/2023 At least one person died and four were rushed to hospital after a multi-story parking garage in New York City collapsed on Tuesday, emergency responders said. Aerial video footage circulating on social media showed cars piled on top of one another in a jumble of cracked concrete in the financial district of Lower Manhattan. The building on Ann Street “pancaked, collapsed, all the way to the […]
Musk touts new moderation policy to reassure advertisers
Miami, United States | AFP | Tuesday 4/19/2023 Twitter head Elon Musk on Tuesday attempted to reassure wary advertisers by hyping up the site’s newly introduced content moderation policy against hateful material. Speaking at a meeting in Florida, the controversial billionaire outlined new rules, first announced Monday, to limit the reach of tweets that do not conform to the platform’s guidelines. “If somebody has something hateful to say, it doesn’t mean he should have a […]





