Tag: Region US

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s defence ministry reported a spike in Chinese military activity around the island on Wednesday, including 53 military aircraft, with Taiwan on high alert over Beijing’s latest pressure campaign. China’s military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any military exercises. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, had been expected to launch drills to express its anger at President Lai Ching-te’s tour of the Pacific that ended on…

NEW YORK – U.S. troops will be staying in Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad as part of a counter-terrorism mission focused on destroying Islamic State militants, a top White House official said on Tuesday. “Those troops are there for a very specific and important reason, not as some sort of bargaining chip,” U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York. U.S. troops “have been there now for the…

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney will pay a $15 million penalty as part of a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to four financial advisers who stole millions of dollars of advisory clients’ and brokerage customers’ funds. The settlement announced late Monday is also related to the firm’s failure to adopt policies and procedures designed to prevent and detect such theft. The SEC order said that MSSB failed to adopt and implement policies and procedures reasonably designed to prevent…

The Justice Department, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of Illinois today announced a settlement with the City of Cahokia Heights, Illinois, resolving violations of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Illinois Environmental Protection Act resulting from the city’s failure to properly operate its sanitary sewer system. The settlement requires that Cahokia Heights pay a $30,000 civil penalty and implement an estimated $30 million in extensive compliance measures. The complaint against Cahokia Heights alleges that on…

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China sent 14 warships, seven military aircraft and four balloons near Taiwan between Saturday and Sunday, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, as Beijing ramps up pressure on the island it claims as its own. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the island in response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to Pacific allies, including U.S. stops in Hawaii and Guam. China claims Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy of 23 million…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a federal order requiring the testing of the nation’s milk supply amid increasing concerns over bird flu. The influenza virus has been raising alarm since it was detected in a Texas cow back in March. Since then, the virus has spread to over 710 dairy herds across 15 states, with California reporting the highest number of infections. At least 58 people have been infected with bird flu, including one child living in the San Francisco…

The video, seen below, shows a shooter assassinating UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, outside a Manhattan hotel. The manhunt for the shooter is still underway 3 days later. News outlets have been irresponsibly posting images of a suspect wearing similar clothing, but who can be seen to be wearing a different jacket and carrying a dark backpack. The shooter’s backpack is clearly light-colored, and his jacket has no pockets just below the shoulders, while the same is not true of the…

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Connecticut Appellate Court on Friday affirmed a $965 million verdict from 2022 against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, determining there’s “sufficient evidence” to support the damages awarded to relatives of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre victims and an FBI agent. In its unanimous opinion, the court cited the “traumatic threats and harassment” the families endured “stemming from the lies, as propagated by the defendants, that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.” “Our review of…

(Reuters) – A federal judge in Texas on Friday rejected a request by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to lift an order that blocked a new rule capping credit card late fees at $8, a policy challenged by business and banking groups. U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth declined to dissolve an injunction he issued in May that barred the rule from taking effect. That rule was issued as part of the Biden administration’s broader crackdown on “junk…

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The Associated Press and two other news organizations are suing Idaho’s top prison official for increased access to lethal injection executions, saying the state is unconstitutionally hiding the actual administration of the deadly drugs from public view. The AP, The Idaho Statesman and East Idaho News filed the lawsuit against Idaho Department of Correction Director Josh Tewalt in Boise’s U.S. District Court on Friday. The news organizations contend the public has a First Amendment right to…

NEW YORK – A former Allianz fund manager was spared prison time on Friday over his role in a meltdown of private investment funds sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic that caused an estimated $7 billion of investor losses. Gregoire Tournant, 57, of Basalt, Colorado, pleaded guilty in June to two counts of investment adviser fraud. He agreed to give up $17.5 million in ill-gotten gains, including bonuses that were inflated by his fraud. Chief Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the…

A two-count indictment was unsealed yesterday charging five current and former correctional officers and one correctional nurse with federal civil rights violations. The indictment alleges that, on Aug. 6, 2023, former Garvin County Jail (GCJ) Sergeant Jennifer Baxter, former GCJ Deputies Alesha Danielle Ingram and Vincent Matthews and former GCJ Nurse Lynnsee Noel, while acting in their official capacity at the GCJ, in Garvin County, Oklahoma, violated the constitutional rights of a pretrial detainee, identified in the indictment as K.T.,…

The Justice Department announced today that it secured an agreement with Pennsylvania-based HCSG East LLC and its parent company, Healthcare Services Group Inc. (HCSG), a nationwide provider of housekeeping, laundry and food services for healthcare and nursing facilities. The agreement resolves the department’s determination that HCSG discriminated against non-U.S. citizens with permission to work in the United States when hiring at its Siler City, North Carolina, location, and engaged in unfair practices concerning work authorization documents because of a worker’s…

As the investigation into a masked gunman who stalked and killed the head of one of the largest U.S. health insurers moved into its third day Friday, possible leads emerged about his travel before the shooting and a message scrawled on ammunition found at the crime scene. UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked from his midtown hotel to the company’s annual investor conference across the street, blocks from tourist draws such as…

A U.S. federal judge on Thursday rejected Boeing’s agreement to plead guilty to fraud in the wake of two fatal 737 MAX crashes, court documents showed. Boeing and the Justice Department now have 30 days to update the court on how they plan to proceed in the case, Judge Reed C. O’Connor of the Northern District Court of Texas ordered. (Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa)

McKinsey and Company Africa (Pty) Ltd (McKinsey Africa), which operates in South Africa as a wholly owned and controlled subsidiary of international consulting firm McKinsey & Company Inc. (McKinsey), will pay over $122 million to resolve an investigation by the Justice Department into a scheme to pay bribes to government officials in South Africa between 2012 and 2016. The guilty plea of a former McKinsey senior partner who participated in the bribery scheme was also unsealed. The Justice Department’s resolution…