US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reprimanded the media and urged journalists to do a better job of selling Democratic President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill to the American public. “You all could do a better job of selling this, to be frank. Every time I come here, I …
Read More »Monthly Archives: October 2021
Biden prepares to resume Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ asylum policy
US President Joe Biden’s administration is taking steps to restart by mid-November a program begun under his predecessor Donald Trump that forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for US court hearings after a federal court deemed the termination of the program unjustified, US officials said Thursday. The administration, however, …
Read More »Russia says it pushed US destroyer from area near its waters
Russia’s Defense Ministry said a Russian warship on Friday prevented a US Navy destroyer from what it described as an attempt to intrude into Russia’s territorial waters in the Sea of Japan. The incident came as Russia and China conducted joint naval drills in the area, and follows other dangerously …
Read More »France ends free Covid testing for all
France on Friday stopped offering COVID-19 tests free of charge for everyone, in the government’s latest effort to incite holdouts to get vaccinated against the virus. A recent negative test, proof of recovery, or full vaccination is needed to get a health pass which is required for access to cafes, …
Read More »Russia’s Putin says ISIS fighters are massing in Northern Afghanistan
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday said hundreds of fighters loyal to ISIS were massing in northern Afghanistan with plans to move between ex-Soviet Central Asian countries disguised as refugees. “According to our intelligence, the number of (ISIS) members alone in northern Afghanistan is about 2,000 people,” the Russian leader …
Read More »Third day of clashes in Bangladesh of Quran ‘desecration’
Police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters in Bangladesh’s two main cities on Friday, on the third day of religious disturbances in the Muslim-majority nation, authorities said. The protests began on Wednesday after footage emerged of a Quran being placed on the knee of a god …
Read More »UK: Thousands of people may have gotten false-negative COVID test results
British health officials said Friday that an estimated 43,000 people may have been wrongly told they don’t have the coronavirus because of problems at a private laboratory. The UK Health Security Agency said a lab in Wolverhampton, central England, has been suspended from processing test swabs after reports of false …
Read More »UN deal offers no guarantees of free movement for Rohingya on island: Leaked copy
A deal for the United Nations to start work on a remote Bangladeshi island where the government has sent thousands of Rohingya refugees offers no guarantee they will be allowed to move freely to the mainland, according to a copy of the agreement. The Bangladesh government has moved nearly 19,000 …
Read More »Custody hearing for Norway bow-and-arrow suspect
The suspect in a bow-and-arrow attack that killed five people and wounded three in a quiet Norwegian town this week is facing a custody hearing Friday. He won’t appear in court because he has confessed to the killings and has agreed to be held in custody. Espen Andersen Braathen, a …
Read More »Seoul police arrest four over cameras hidden in entire motel
South Korean police have arrested four people for allegedly installing hidden cameras in the rooms of an entire motel and attempting to extort money from the hundreds of guests who were filmed. The suspects filmed for months and tried to blackmail some guests with threats to release their videos but …
Read More »England eases COVID-19 testing rules for most incoming passengers from Oct. 24
Fully vaccinated passengers arriving in England from low-risk countries from Oct. 24 will no longer have to take expensive COVID-19 tests, the British government said on Thursday. Last month the government simplified the rules for international travel to England in a boost to the tourism industry, which has blamed the …
Read More »Boeing finds new defect in continuing struggle to produce Dreamliner 787
Boeing Co said on Thursday that some titanium 787 Dreamliner parts were improperly manufactured over the past three years, the latest in a series of problems to plague the wide-body aircraft. The quality issue does not affect the immediate safety of flights, the company said, adding it had notified the …
Read More »Former US president Bill Clinton in hospital with non-Covid infection
Former US president Bill Clinton has been hospitalized with a non-Covid-related infection, a spokesman said Thursday evening. Clinton’s doctors said it was a blood infection. Clinton, 75, was admitted to a hospital in Irvine in Southern California on Tuesday evening, Angel Urena tweeted. He gave no details other than to …
Read More »Tech giants to face another bipartisan US antitrust bill
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, headed by Senators Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, and Republican Chuck Grassley, plan to introduce a bill that would bar Big Tech platforms, like Amazon and Alphabet’s Google, from favoring their products and services. Amazon, for example, has been accused of using data from third-party sellers …
Read More »US offers $1 mln rewards to capture Pakistani human smuggler who operates in Mid East
The US is offering two $1million cash rewards to bring Pakistani national and human smuggler Abid Ali Kahn to justice and to crackdown on his people-smuggling network that operates across the Middle East and Asia, the Department of State announced on Thursday. Ali Khan allegedly operates a Pakistani-based smuggling network …
Read More »British MP David Amess stabbed to death: Police
A British lawmaker in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party was stabbed to death on Friday in a church by a man who walked into a meeting with voters from his electoral district, police said. Police said a man had been arrested on suspicion of murder. David Amess, who represented …
Read More »Lebanon Interior Ministry confirms Geagea militia behind sniper killings in Beirut
A top-level meeting at Lebanon’s Interior Ministry has concluded that the extremist Lebanese Forces (LF) political party, led by Samir Geagea, had started the Thursday shooting in Beirut that killed six people on Thursday. According to reports, all details of the bloody event were discussed in a meeting of the …
Read More »Russia: Syria held back fire as Zionists used civilian aircraft as cover in Homs raid
The illegal Zionist entity has one again used civilian aircraft as a shield against Syrian air defense systems during its attacks on the West Asian country, says a Russian general. “On October 13, from 23:35 to 23:39, four F-16 tactical fighters of the Israeli Air Force entered Syrian airspace in …
Read More »UK keeps exporting tear gas to West Asian authoritarian regimes
The UK government has approved tear gas exports to numerous authoritarian West Asian regimes, including in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and Oman, over the past decade, new research finds. According to survey results released by British NGO Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), since 2008, the British …
Read More »Bahrainis protest against normalization with Israel, voice solidarity with political prisoners
Dozens of people in Bahrain have taken to the streets to protest normalization of ties with the Tel Aviv regime and inauguration of the Israeli embassy in the capital Manama. Locals staged a rally late on Wednesday in the village of Sanabis, where they voiced their indignation about the establishment of …
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