Tag: Region US

ZURICH – Switzerland is holding talks with the United States after Washington tried to raise the price of new fighter jets Bern is buying for its air force, the government said on Wednesday. Bern chose Lockheed Martin’s F-35A Lightning II as its next-generation fighter plane in 2021, with a fixed price of around 6 billion Swiss francs ($7.4 billion) for 36 jets, a decision that attracted controversy in neutral Switzerland. But the U.S. Joint Program Office overseeing the project said…

AP — Last week, Ukrainian drone hunters picking up the debris from Russia´s nightly assault on their cities found a weapon that stood out from the rest. It had an advanced camera, a computing platform powered by artificial intelligence and a radio link, allowing an operator to pilot it remotely from Russia. It also contained new, Iranian-made, anti-jamming technology, according to a Ukrainian drone expert. Most Russian attack drones are black, said Serhii Beskrestnov, an electronics expert more widely known as…

The number of years former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan spent in Springfield has often been used as shorthand to explain his outsized impact on state government and politics. His political career spanned 50 years in the General Assembly, 23 years chairing the Democratic Party of Illinois, and 36 years as House speaker — the longest tenure of any state or federal legislative leader in U.S. history. But on Friday, a new term was added to the former speaker’s list…

BOSTON – A federal judge on June 13 blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from implementing parts of his sweeping executive order overhauling federal elections, including by requiring proof of US citizenship to register to vote and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day. US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston issued a preliminary injunction at the behest of 19 Democratic-led states who had argued that the Republican president lacked the authority to mandate changes to elections and…

LONDON – The clashes between rioters and federal and California National Guards troops now unfolding in Los Angeles have played out in typical American fashion, with exaggerated claims and disputes about the interpretation of supposedly grand constitutional principles. US President Donald Trump claims that, had he not deployed a total of around 5,000 troops, Los Angeles “would be burning”. But Ms Karen Bass, Los Angeles’ mayor, argues that law and order was never truly threatened in her city, and that…

WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump warned people on June 11 against protesting at the weekend military parade in Washington marking the US Army’s 250th anniversary. “For those people that want to protest, they’re going to be met with very big force,” Mr Trump told reporters in the White House’s Oval Office. Law enforcement agencies are preparing for hundreds of thousands of people to attend the June 14 parade, US Secret Service special agent in charge Matt McCool said on…

WASHINGTON – U.S. government agencies tracked foreign nationals’ visits to Elon Musk’s proprieties amid concerns over possible attempts to influence the tech billionaire, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The investigation, which tracked the foreigners in 2022 and 2023, included the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department, according to the report. It focused on people visiting the Musk from countries in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, the Journal said. Musk, who runs…

Academic publishers are rushing to sign licensing deals with artificial intelligence (AI) companies, carving out a new revenue stream as US research funding cuts dim their outlook. Informa Plc’s Taylor & Francis signed a US$10 million (S$12.8 million) deal with Microsoft Corp. in 2024 to provide the technology giant access to part of its library to train large language models, or LLMs. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc is looking to “monetise academic content through AI deals”, it said in its latest set…

Five men have pleaded guilty for their roles in laundering more than $36.9 million from victims of an international digital asset investment scam conspiracy that was carried out from scam centers in Cambodia. According to court documents, Joseph Wong, 33, of Alhambra, California; Yicheng Zhang, 39, of China; Jose Somarriba, 55, of Los Angeles; Shengsheng He, 39, of La Puente, California; and Jingliang Su, 44, of China and Turkey, were part of an international criminal network that induced U.S. victims,…

Two Chinese nationals have been charged with smuggling a plant pathogen into the US for research at a University of Michigan laboratory, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on 3 June. The couple has also been charged with making false statements and visa fraud. They were arrested in connection with allegations related to secretly transporting the fungus Fusarium graminearum, which federal prosecutors claim is classified in the scientific literature as ‘a potential agroterrorism weapon’, although experts Chemistry World spoke to…

Mr. Türk was responding to an announcement by Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, on Thursday, of measures targeting the judges, who are overseeing a 2020 case of alleged war crime committed in Afghanistan by US and Afghan military forces, and the 2024 ICC arrest warrants issued against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, the former Defence Minister. “I am profoundly disturbed by the decision of the Government of the United States of America to sanction judges…

A former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy pleaded guilty in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, today to depriving an inmate of his civil rights. Matthew Carey, 28, of Grove City, admitted to depriving an individual of their right to be free from a deputy’s deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm, while acting under color of law. According to court documents, in March 2022, Carey intentionally disclosed a pretrial detainee’s pending charge of rape of a minor to Gmier…

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into the State of Rhode Island (“Rhode Island”) concerning potential race-based discrimination in state employment practices. The state of Rhode Island mandates state agencies set hiring targets that are effectively race-based employment quotas.[1] These statutorily mandated goals pressure state agencies to engage in discriminatory, and potentially unlawful, hiring practices. The Civil Rights Division’s Employment Litigation Section opened the investigation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which…

The Trump administration has released more details of its budget request for the 2026 financial year and the picture for research is even worse than the ‘skinny’ budget released last month. Funding for chemistry from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the maths and physical sciences programme is projected to plummet by 75%, from more than $244 million (£180 million) last year to just over $61 million. Materials research would be cut by 71% to $92 million. And maths and…