Page 45 - United States

F-35 fighter jet crashes at Air Force base in Utah; pilot ejected safely

An F-35 fighter jet crashed Wednesday at an Air Force base in Utah, officials said, adding that the pilot ejected and was taken to a hospital for observation. The 388th Fighter Wing said on its Twitter account that the F-35 A Lightning II crashed at the north end of the Hill Air Force Base runway. It said the cause of the crash was unknown and would be investigated. The 388th Fighter Wing said emergency crews both on and off the base responded to the crash. Brock Thurgood said the pilot landed near his property near the base, KSL.com reported. Thurgood said the pilot was walking and he was coherent, but noted his hands were bloodied up and he was a little banged up. I don't know how I'd be after I was in a plane crash but he was surprisingly tough, Thurgood said. Hill Air Force Base is located about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City.

US busts manufacturers' network providing technology to Russian military

The Biden administration has announced a round of criminal charges and sanctions related to a complicated scheme to procure military technologies from US manufacturers and illegally supply them to Russia for its war in Ukraine. Some of the equipment was recovered on battlefields in Ukraine, the Justice Department said, and other nuclear proliferation technology was intercepted in Latvia before it could be shipped to Russia. The Justice Department charged nine people in separate cases in New York and Connecticut, as well as two oil brokers for Venezuela. The defendants are accused of acquiring the military technology from US companies and then laundering tens of millions of dollars for wealthy Russian businessmen and other sanctioned entities. Some of the defendants are also accused of brokering illicit oil deals for the Venezuelan state-owned oil company. As I have said, our investigators and prosecutors will be relentless in their efforts to identify, locate, and bring to justice

Covid-19 linked to increase in US pregnancy-related deaths, says report

COVID-19 drove a dramatic increase in the number of women who died from pregnancy or childbirth complications in the US last year, a crisis that has disproportionately claimed Black and Hispanic women as victims, according to a report. The report released on Wednesday lays out grim trends across the country for expectant mothers and their newborn babies. It finds that pregnancy-related deaths have spiked nearly 80 per cent since 2018, with COVID-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1,178 deaths reported last year. The percentage of preterm and low birthweight babies also went up last year, after holding steady for years. And more pregnant or postpartum women are reporting symptoms of depression. We were already in the middle of a crisis with maternal mortality in our country, said Karen Tabb Dina, a maternal health researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This really shows that COVID-19 has exacerbated that crisis to rates that we, as a country, are not able t

Former US VP Pence warns of 'unprincipled populists', 'Putin apologists'

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday warned against the growing populist tide in the Republican Party as he admonished Putin apologists unwilling to stand up to the Russian leader over his assault on Ukraine. Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington less than a month before November's midterm elections, Pence addressed the growing gulf between traditional conservatives and a new generation of populist candidates inspired, in part, by former President Donald Trump, who has transformed a large swath of the party. Today, on the cusp of a new era of Republican leadership ... I think we need to chart a course that doesn't veer off too far in either direction," Pence told the think tank audience. Our movement cannot forsake the foundational commitment that we have to security, to limited government, to liberty and to life. But nor can we allow our movement to be led astray by the siren song of unprincipled populism that's unmoored from our oldest traditions

Biden admin awards $2.8 billion in grants for EV batteries in 12 US states

The Biden administration on Wednesday awarded USD 2.8 billion in grants to build and expand domestic manufacturing of batteries for electric vehicles in 12 states. A total of 20 companies will receive grants for projects to extract and process lithium, graphite and other battery materials, manufacture components and strengthen U.S. supply of critical minerals, officials said. The announcement comes as the administration seeks to boost production and sales of electric vehicles as a key part of President Joe Biden's strategy to slow climate change and build up U.S. manufacturing. Biden has vowed to boost U.S. production of lithium and other critical minerals, and the sweeping climate and health-care law passed in August includes several provisions to boost electric vehicles, including tax credits for EV buyers worth up to $7,500. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who announced the grant competition in May, called the funding announcement huge news that would expand made-in-America .

6 students, 2 others hospitalised after Carbon monoxide leak in Kansas

Six students and two adults were taken to a hospital for evaluation after a carbon monoxide leak was detected Wednesday at a Kansas City elementary school, officials said. The eight people taken to hospitals from Longfellow Elementary School suffered nausea and dizziness but none suffered life-threatening issues, Assistant Fire Chief Jimmy Walker said. Emergency responders went to the school after several students reporting feeling ill. Firefighters found extremely high levels of the lethal gas inside the building, Walker said. The level of carbon monoxide reached 2,000 parts per million, which was the maximum for monitors used by firefighters at the scene, Walker said. The cause of the leak is under investigation. Firefighters were ventilating the building but it was unclear when students could return to Longfellow. School district spokesperson Elle Moxley said the district had contractors check its heating systems last week, including at Longfellow, in anticipation of colder ...

'Joe Biden's climate act will tip level playing field between US and EU'

Senior French and German officials warned Wednesday that recent measures by the Biden administration to address climate change and boost the American economy could upend the level playing field on trade between the European Union and the United States. The EU has criticised the legislation, approved by Congress in August, for including clauses that it says discriminate against European automakers. We need to work on adequate European responses to this American Inflation Reduction Act, which might jeopardize the developing field between our two continents, French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said after talks with his German counterparts. Asked what such a response might entail, Le Maire said, We are not talking about tit for tat." But he told reporters that France wanted to explore all the options with our European partners." We should seize any opportunity that we have to talk to the U.S. administration and to explain very clearly that we do not want to be hit by the

China puts hold on UN proposal to blacklist LeT terrorist Hafiz Talah Saeed

China on Wednesday put a hold on a proposal by India and the US at the United Nations to blacklist Pakistan-based militant Hafiz Talah Saeed, the son of Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed, in the second such move within two days. Hafiz Talha Saeed, 46, is a key leader of the dreaded terrorist group LeT and the son of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Saeed. In April this year, he had been declared a terrorist by the Indian government. It is learnt that China placed the hold on the proposal under the 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the UN Security Council. It is the second time in less than two days that Beijing put a hold on the bid submitted by India and the US to designate a Pakistan-based terrorist as a global terrorist. In a notification, India's Home Ministry had said that Hafiz Talha Saeed, 46, has been actively involved in recruitment, fund collection, and planning and executing attacks by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) in India and Indian interests in Afghanistan

Trump knew vote fraud claims in legal docs were false, rules judge

Former President Donald Trump signed legal documents challenging the results of the 2020 election that included voter fraud claims he knew to be false, a federal judge said in a ruling. US District Court Judge David Carter in an 18-page opinion ordered that four emails between Trump and attorney John Eastman be given to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He said the emails cannot be withheld because they include evidence of potential crimes. Though the judge's conclusion has no practical bearing on a separate Justice Department investigation into efforts to overturn the election, any evidence that Trump signed documents he knew to be false could at minimum be a notable data point for criminal prosecutors trying to sort out culpability for far-ranging efforts to undo the results. The judge specifically cited claims from Trump's attorneys that Fulton County in Georgia had improperly counted more than 10,000 votes of dead people, felons and ...

Over 14.8 million US children tested positive for Covid since 2020

Over 14.8 mn children in US have tested positive for Covid since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, according to the latest report by the American Academy of Pediatrics

Concern about climate change shrinks globally as threat grows: Study

Only 20% of people in China, the world's biggest polluter, said they believed that climate change was a very serious threat, down 3 percentage points from the previous poll in 2019

Texas convicts man for murder of first turbaned Sikh police officer in 2019

A man, who was found guilty of capital murder for gunning down Deputy Sandeep Dahliwal, the first turbaned Indian-American Sikh police officer in the US state of Texas in 2019, has been convicted by a court here. Robert Solis, 50, was convicted by the jury of the Harris County Criminal Court in Houston for the capital murder of 42-year-old Dahliwal, a 10-year-veteran of the Harris County Sheriff's Office. He had drawn widespread notice when he gained permission to wear a turban as part of his uniform in 2015, and was killed in an ambush-style shooting while on duty on September 27, 2019. With Dahliwal's family in the courtroom on Monday, the jury took less than 30 minutes to announce the verdict. Solis, who fired his attorneys, had decided to represent himself in court. He started his opening statement in the punishment phase by asking for the death penalty. "Since you believe I'm guilty of capital murder, I believe you should give me the death penalty," Solis told the jury. Juror

US gears up for midterm elections: What are they and what's at stake?

Democrats currently hold the House of Representatives by a margin of just 10 seats out of 435. This is the narrowest House majority since 1955

Extensive proof Russia using Iranian drones in Ukraine: US State Department

A US State Department spokesman has claimed there's enough proof that Russia is using Iranian drones against both military and civilian targets in Ukraine

US' new export controls on chips shake China's semiconductor industry

Following the announcement of new limitations by the administration of US President Joe Biden, the mass departure of the American workers has shaken China's semiconductor industry

US stocks will lead the way out of current wave of market turmoil: Survey

Only 7% of the respondents saw the US becoming the first economy to crack

An insecure partner

US National Security Strategy raises concern

New Covid-19 variant BQ.1 behind 1 in every 10 cases in US: CDC

New Covid strains are gaining ground across the world and in the US, new variant BQ.1 now makes up one in 10 cases nationwide, new data from the CDC has estimated

US sending $725 mn more in aid to Ukraine for defence against Russia

The Biden administration will send Ukraine a new USD 725 million package of weapons and other military assistance, the White House said, as the US added to a flurry of aid announcements from European allies this week. The announcement made on Friday comes on the heels of meetings at NATO, where defence leaders from Europe and around the world pledged weapons and air defence systems to Ukraine as Russia heightened its bombardment of Kyiv and other regions. Officials said there are no major new weapons in the US package. Instead, the US aid is largely aimed at restocking thousands of rounds of ammunition for the weapons systems Ukraine has been successfully using in its counteroffensive against Russia, as the war stretches into its eighth month. The new package includes rounds for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, known as HIMARS, a critical weapon that has improved Ukraine's ability to strike ammunition depots, bridges and other key targets that erode Russia's ability to ..

Plastic pollution in US could trigger $20 bn in payouts over next 8 yrs

Litigation could cost the plastics industry and its insurers $20 billion in the US over the next eight years, according to a report backed by the United Nations and an Australian billionaire