(AFP) Washington, United States The US Justice Department on Tuesday charged the founder and three members of a half-century-old Black nationalist group with working with Russian intelligence to influence elections in the United States. Omali Yeshitela, the founder of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and the Uhuru Movement, and two other party members, Penny Joanne Hess and Jesse Nevel, were charged with acting as unregistered agents of Russia, which carries a maximum […]
Tag: US
Fox News settles defamation case for $787.5 mn
Wilmington, United States | AFP | Tuesday 4/18/2023 by Susannah WALDEN with Peter HUTCHISON in New York Fox News reached a $787.5 million settlement Tuesday in a defamation case brought by voting technology company Dominion that alleged the network knowingly aired false claims linking its machines to a conspiracy to undermine the 2020 US presidential election. The agreement to end the case avoided what most experts suggested would have been a damaging, high-profile trial for […]
Netflix says subscriber numbers hit record high
Netflix on Tuesday said that its number of subscribers hit a record high 232.5 million in the first quarter of the year and that its nascent ad-supported tier was faring well. The streaming television giant reported a quarterly profit of $1.3 billion, in line with expectations, but said it had delayed a broad crackdown on sharing of account passwords “to improve the experience for members.” Netflix said it expects to begin rolling out its options […]
US reporter denied bail at first public Russian court hearing
Moscow, Russia | AFP | Tuesday 4/18/2023 US reporter Evan Gershkovich appeared at a Moscow court on Tuesday, in the first partly open hearing since his arrest for alleged espionage, in a case that has drawn international condemnation. Wearing jeans and a blue checked shirt, Gershkovich crossed his arms and smiled before the start of the appeal hearing against his pre-trial detention. But, after a short hearing, his request for release on bail was turned […]
China says ‘political manipulation’ behind US arrests
Beijing, China | AFP | Tuesday 4/18/2023 China said on Tuesday that “political manipulation” was behind the arrests of two men the United States accused of setting up an unauthorised Chinese police station in New York. Authorities in the city also charged dozens of Chinese security officials over a campaign to monitor and harass US-based dissidents. “China firmly opposes the US side’s slandering, smearing, engaging in political manipulation, and maliciously concocting the so-called transnational repression […]
Musk says he is out to create ‘truth-seeking’ AI
San Francisco, United States | AFP | Tuesday 4/18/2023 Elon Musk is out to counter Microsoft and Google artificial intelligence efforts with “truth-seeking AI” that shuns political correctness, he said during an interview aired late Monday. The billionaire boss of Twitter and Tesla voiced anew his concerns about the danger of AI, saying it has “the potential of civilizational destruction.” He said he was also worried that the ChatGPT bot created by startup OpenAI […]
The Russian ‘fortress’ where US journalist is held
by AFP Moscow bureau with Barbara Wojazer in Warsaw Agence France-Presse MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — US journalist Evan Gershkovich’s court appearance in Moscow on Tuesday will be a rare break from his isolation in Lefortovo prison — a symbol of repression since Soviet times. The detention facility, which has housed a long list of high-profile figures, is engineered by the FSB security service to keep detainees in near-total solitude. “It’s a frozen prison, they’re isolating […]
White House says Brazil ‘parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda’ on Ukraine
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The White House on Monday sharply criticized Brazil after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on a trip to China that the United States is encouraging war in Ukraine. “In this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. Lula said Saturday during a visit to Beijing, where he met Chinese leader Xi Jinping, […]
SpaceX postpones test flight of Starship, world’s biggest rocket
by Patrick Fallon with Chris Lefkow in Washington SpaceX on Monday postponed the first test flight of Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, designed to send astronauts to the Moon and Mars and beyond. Liftoff of the gigantic rocket was called off just minutes ahead of the scheduled launch time because of a pressurization issue in the booster stage, SpaceX said. SpaceX founder Elon Musk said a pressure valve appeared to be frozen, forcing […]
US says naval destroyer sailed through Taiwan Strait
The United States has sent a naval warship through the Taiwan Strait in a “freedom of navigation” operation days after China staged massive war games around the self-ruled island. The USS Milius guided-missile destroyer “conducted a routine Taiwan Strait transit” on Sunday, the US Navy said, in the first US operation in the waters separating Taiwan from mainland China since January. Beijing launched three days of military exercises around Taiwan on April 8 in which […]
‘Big sponge’: new CO2 tech taps oceans to tackle global warming
by Romain FONSEGRIVES Agence France-Presse SAN PEDRO, United States (AFP) — Floating in the port of Los Angeles, a strange-looking barge covered with pipes and tanks contains a concept that scientists hope to make waves: a new way to use the ocean as a vast carbon dioxide sponge to tackle global warming. Scientists from University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have been working for two years on SeaChange — an ambitious project that could one […]
Four dead, 28 injured in Alabama teen birthday party shooting
At least four people were killed and more than 20 others injured, mostly teens, in a Saturday night shooting at a birthday party in Alabama, officials said, in the latest spasm of American gun mass violence. Local news reports said the shooting occurred at a Sweet 16 party at a dance studio in Dadeville, a small town northeast of the state capital Montgomery. “There were four lives tragically lost in this incident, and there’s been […]
