US

The US Air Force is scheduled to bring in F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jets but there may be some change in the schedule of the drill which was planned to begin on April 10

FedEx will combine almost all of its ground, air and other operations by next year as part of a USD 4 billion cost cutting plan. The package delivery company said Wednesday that FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Services and other FedEx operating companies will be rolled into a single entity by June 2024 in a companywide reorganisation. FedEx Freight, the company's freight transportation services division, will continue as a stand-alone company within Federal Express Corp. Raj Subramaniam will serve as president and CEO of the combined organisation. John Smith will become president and CEO of US and Canada ground operations at FedEx Express and assume leadership of surface operations across the FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, and FedEx Freight businesses. Richard Smith will serve as president and CEO, airline and international at FedEx Express, overseeing all other regions and FedEx Logistics. The company expects to realise permanent cost reductions of USD 4 billion from the reshuff

Former US President Donald Trump arrived at a specially secured Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday ahead of his arraignment on history-making criminal charges related to paying hush money to a porn star before the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence. Trump, the first former US President to face a criminal charge, would surrender before Judge Juan Merchan. American media quoted Trump's attorneys as saying that the 76-year-old Republican leader, eying the White House for a second time in 2024, will plead not guilty to the criminal charges he is facing in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. After his court appearance, Trump will immediately fly back to Florida where he will deliver remarks at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach in the evening. The arraignment proceeding is expected to be brief. The charges in the indictment will be read to him at the hearing, which is set to last about 10-15 minutes. Trump has denied all wrongdoings in connection

Trump also calls the judge who will arraign him "highly partisan" and says his family are "well-known Trump haters"

The Pakistani rupee sank to Rs 287.29 against the US dollar, a record low on Tuesday as the cash-starved country struggles to unlock critical International Monetary Fund (IMF) funding while dwindling foreign exchange reserves become another source of concern for investors, a media report said. The local unit, in the interbank market, closed at 287.29 against the US dollar, 0.78 per cent or Rs 2.25, down from Monday's close of 285.04, Geo News reported. Last month, the rupee hit a record low, closing at Rs 285.09 per US dollar on March 2, the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed. According to financial experts, Financial importers have resumed the panic buying of US dollars, while the supply of foreign currency remained low in the interbank market. Pakistan's loan programme is yet to materialise months after it raised taxes and energy prices and allowed the currency to depreciate to meet IMF's conditions. The nation has missed multiple deadlines to resume its ...

The US will send Ukraine about $500 million in ammunition and equipment and will spend more than $2 billion to buy an array of munitions, radar and other weapons in the future, U.S. officials said, as the Ukrainian troops prepare for a spring offensive against Russian forces. The ammunition rounds, along with grenade launchers and vehicles, will be taken from military stockpiles so they can be in the war zone quickly, the officials said. The $2.1 billion in longer-term aid, which is being provided under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, will buy missiles for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, or NASAMS, as well as radar and other weapons, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the aid had not yet been announced. An announcement is expected as soon as Tuesday. The new weapons and funding come as Russia has continued to bombard Ukraine with long-range missiles and the hotly contested battle for the eastern city of Bakhmu

Donald Trump is set to be arraigned on Tuesday after being indicted last week by a Manhattan grand jury on charges arising from hush money payments made to a porn star during his 2016 campaign, making him the first former US president to face a criminal charge and upending his bid to retake the White House in 2024. The 76-year-old is expected to fly to New York City from his Mar-a-Lago home on Monday and plans to return back to his resort in Florida following his court hearing, where he will address his supporters on Tuesday night, his office said Sunday. "I will be leaving Mar-a-Lago on Monday at 12 noon, heading to Trump Tower in New York. On Tuesday morning I will be going to, believe it or not, the Courthouse. America was not supposed to be this way! Trump wrote on his social media account on Truth Social Sunday, as the city braces for demonstrations from his supporters and protestors in the wake of the unprecedented criminal indictment of a former president. Trump, who is the .

A Chinese spy balloon that flew across the US was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites and transmit it back to Beijing in real-time, despite the Biden administration's efforts to block it, a media report said on Monday. A suspected Chinese spy balloon said to be the size of three buses, was spotted over the airspace of the United States in late January. China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites (at times flying figure-eight formations) and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real time, NBC News reported, quoting three unnamed officials. The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials were quoted as saying in the report. The three officials said China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the .

U.S. consumer spending rose moderately in February, and while inflation cooled, it remained elevated enough to possibly allow the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates one more time this year

Swiggy reached a $10.7 billion valuation in a round led by Invesco in January last year

The grand jury on Thursday voted to indict 76-year-old Trump, a Republican, for his role in paying money to porn star Stormy Daniels in an attempt to buy her silence over an alleged affair

Donald Trump will go down in history as the first US President to be indicted on criminal charges but he is far from alone in the pantheon of presidential predecessors whose tenures have been marred by scandals and controversies. A grand jury in Manhattan on Thursday afternoon voted to indict the real estate tycoon, former reality TV host and America's Commander-in-Chief in connection with hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, making Trump the first former US President to face criminal charges. But Trump, the 45th US president, does not stand alone among current or former US Presidents when it comes to controversy plaguing the White House occupants. Bill Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States and sat in the Oval Office from 1993 to 2001. In December 1998, Clinton was impeached by the US House of Representatives on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton had become only the second US President in history, after Andrew Johnson, to be ...

Romania's navy led multinational military drills in the Black Sea region Thursday that brought together U.S. and NATO troops as the 30-nation alliance looks to boost security on its southeastern flank amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. The sea and air exercises are part of a series of drills known as Sea Shield 2023 that involve some 3,400 military personnel from 12 NATO member countries and some partner nations. Romania's navy said Thursday's drills in the Mahmudia region of the Danube Delta, which flows into the Black Sea, would demonstrate how the combined forces would neutralise an enemy air landing in an area adjacent to such a waterway. More than 30 naval ships, 14 aircraft and 15 fast intervention boats and other patrol vessels are taking part in Sea Shield 2023, which started March 20 and runs until April 2. Anti-explosive divers have participated in drills, as have chemical, biological, and nuclear defence specialists. In response to Russia's February 2022 invasion of

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said on Tuesday he's increasingly concerned about President Joe Biden's unwillingness to negotiate on lifting the nation's borrowing authority, saying in a letter to the president that the White House position could "hold dire ramifications for the entire nation. Rather than open direct talks on the debt ceiling, which the Democrats agree must be raised, Biden and his party's lawmakers are challenging Republicans to publicly present their own budget proposals something McCarthy has so far declined to do. For now, the Treasury Department has resorted to extraordinary measures to avoid default on the nation's USD 31.4 trillion borrowing authority. But those measures will run out and put the US at risk of being unable to pay all of its bills possibly as early as June. The White House has emphasised that Biden is not willing to entertain proposed cuts in programmes simply in exchange for lifting the debt limit. But McCarthy and Republicans are

Japan and the United States have reached an agreement on trade in critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries, part of an effort to diversify supply chains and reduce reliance on China for strategically important resources. The deal struck Tuesday is expected to help electric vehicles using metals processed in Japan qualify for tax incentives under President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. This announcement is proof of President Biden's commitment to building resilient and secure supply chains, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. The Inflation Reduction Act, enacted in August, requires a portion of the critical minerals used in EV batteries to be mined in or processed domestically or from countries with which the US has free trade agreements. Japan and the US have no such FTA, but the deal will grant Japan the same treatment as an FTA partner regarding such minerals, Japanese officials said. As a result, the two sides said they agreed to not impose

The US government will restrict its use of commercial spyware tools that have been used to surveil human rights activists, journalists and dissidents around the world, under an executive order issued on Monday by President Joe Biden. The order responds to growing US and global concerns about programs that can capture text messages and other cellphone data. Some programs so-called zero-click exploits can infect a phone without the user clicking on a malicious link. Governments around the world including the US are known to collect large amounts of data for intelligence and law enforcement purposes, including communications from their own citizens. The proliferation of commercial spyware has made powerful tools newly available to smaller countries, but also created what researchers and human-rights activists warn are opportunities for abuse and repression. The White House released the executive order in advance of its second summit for democracy this week. The order demonstrates t

Former US President Donald Trump seemed little fazed by the possible indictment on the lower Manhattan Tax Evasion case following Attorney General Letitia James prosecution

Emergency officials in Mississippi said 23 people have been killed by tornadoes that tore through the state on Friday night, destroying buildings and knocking out power as severe weather that produced hail the size of golf balls moved through several southern states. The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency confirmed there had been 23 deaths as of 6:20 a.m. Saturday with dozens of injuries and four people missing throughout the state. The agency said in a Twitter post that search and rescue teams from numerous local and state agencies were deployed along with personnel to assist those impacted by the tornadoes. The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado caused damage about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Jackson, Mississippi. The rural towns of Silver City and Rolling Fork reported destruction as the tornado swept northeast at 70 mph (113 kph) without weakening, racing towards Alabama through towns including Winona and Amory into the night. The National Weather Servi

US nominee for World Bank president Ajay Banga has tested COVID-19 following which the meetings scheduled during his two-day visit to India have been cancelled. According to a Finance Ministry statement, Banga's meeting with Nirmala Sitharaman would not happen as he is in quarantine. "During routine testing, Ajay Banga tested positive for COVID-19 but remains asymptomatic. In adherence with local guidelines, he is quarantining in isolation," the statement said. Besides meeting with the Union finance minister, Banga was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar and top officials during his two-day visit from March 23 to 24. Banga's New Delhi visit is the final stop on his three-week global tour that began in Africa before progressing to Europe, Latin America, and Asia to drum up support for his candidature for the World Bank's top position. In a statement on Wednesday, the US Treasury Department had said, "While in India, Banga will m

New York City police officers put up security barricades outside Manhattan Criminal Court and Bragg's office earlier this week, but so far, protests have been minimal