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FTC lawsuit to block Coach parent from buying Michael Kors owner says deal would deprive consumers of competitionThe US Federal Trade Commission said on Monday it was suing to block Coach parent Tapestry’s $8.5bn deal to buy Michael Kors owner Capri, saying it would eliminate competition.This comes at a time when several US lawmakers have sought increased scrutiny from the FTC of several multi-billion...

Funds will be targeted at disadvantaged areas to create 200,000 jobs, after last week’s oil and gas lease restrictions in AlaskaJoe Biden will mark Monday’s Earth Day by announcing a $7bn investment in solar energy projects nationwide, focusing on disadvantaged communities, and unveiling a week-long series of what the White House say will be “historic climate actions”.The president is traveling to Virginia’s Prince William...

Relief had been granted after president Nicolás Maduro promised to hold free and fair elections this yearThe Biden administration has reimposed crushing oil sanctions on Venezuela, admonishing the president Nicolás Maduro’s attempts to consolidate his rule just six months after the US eased restrictions in a bid to support now fading hopes for a democratic opening in the Opec nation.A senior US official, discussing...

US president convenes top advisers as US and Jordanian forces help Israel intercept barrageIran launches attack against Israel – liveIran said it launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday in a major attack following days of acute tension building up in the region and warnings from the US and elsewhere about a wider conflict erupting.Air attack warning sirens began wailing...

Federal report says ‘cascade of errors’ by tech giant let Chinese operators break into senior government officials’ email accountsIn a scathing indictment of Microsoft corporate security and transparency, a Biden administration-appointed review board issued a report Tuesday saying “a cascade of errors” by the tech giant let state-backed Chinese cyber operators break into email accounts of senior US officials including commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo.The...

Space agency tasked with establishing Coordinated Lunar Time, partly to aid missions requiring extreme precisionThe White House wants Nasa to figure out how to tell time on the moon.A memo sent Tuesday from the head of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) has asked the space agency to work with other US agencies and international agencies to establish a moon-centric time...

National security spokesperson says US passed on warnings and dismissed Russian allegations Ukraine was involved as ‘nonsense’The US repeatedly alerted Russia that extremists were planning to attack large gatherings in Moscow ahead of last week’s concert hall attack that claimed more than 140 lives, the White House has said.The national security spokesperson, John Kirby, said on Thursday that US officials passed on warnings –...

Draft resolution loosens linkage between Gaza ceasefire and hostage release as US tries to claw back leadership on issue at UNWashington’s draft UN security council resolution on Gaza marks a shift in the US position, but it is a nuanced shift, retaining the linkage between a ceasefire and hostage release while loosening that linkage and emphasising that an immediate end to hostilities is the...

Doctors who have returned from volunteering at besieged hospitals to tell officials aid is meaningless without a ceasefireA delegation of American and British doctors is in Washington DC to tell the Biden administration the Israeli military is systematically destroying Gaza’s health infrastructure in order to drive Palestinians out of their homes.The doctors, who have recently returned from volunteering at Gaza’s besieged hospitals, are expected...

Ro Khanna, Biden campaign surrogate, believes US president should take tougher line with ‘insufferably arrogant’ Israeli PMJoe Biden has committed a “strategic mistake” by “bear-hugging” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as he prosecutes war with Hamas, a leading congressional progressive Democrat and Biden campaign surrogate said.“The bear-hugging of Netanyahu has been a strategic mistake,” Ro Khanna said, accusing the Israeli leader of conducting...

‘You need drivers, trucks and a distribution system that doesn’t exist,’ says president of Refugees International aid advocacy groupThe US plan to build a floating port off the Gaza coast is a bold move, reminiscent of the Mulberry harbours built after D-day in Normandy, but there are serious concerns that what relief it brings will be too little too late for Palestinians facing starvation.“When...

President implores Republicans to ‘show a little spine’ and support bipartisan border and security bill as Trump speaks at Eagle PassJoe Biden and his all-but certain Republican challenger, Donald Trump, made dueling visits to Texas border towns on Thursday, a rare overlap that sets the stage for an election-season clash over immigration.In Brownsville, along the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico, Biden implored...

President Zelenskiy says 'millions will be killed’ if US aid is not approved within one monthVladimir Putin “gains every day” the US House does not pass a new aid package for Ukraine, Joe Biden’s national security adviser has warned, as its president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, warned of dire outcomes unless Ukraine receives US military aid within one month.Ahead of a crunch week in Washington that...

US looked into claims that Andrés Manuel López Obrador allies took money from cartels, according to a New York Times reportOfficials with the justice department and the Biden administration have downplayed a report that US law enforcement spent years looking into allegations that allies of Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, were investigated for taking millions of dollars from drug cartels after the president...

The Internationalists details how the president was determined to leave a country in which 2,324 US troops were killed since 2001Joe Biden is “privately defiant” that he made the right calls on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in summer 2021, a new book reportedly says, even as the chaos and carnage that unfolded continues to be investigated in Congress.“No one offered to resign” over...

Alejandro Mayorkas, rebuked by Republicans who voted against key immigration bill, first to face such punishment in over 150 yearsThe US House of Representatives has voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s secretary of homeland security, on explicitly political charges related to conditions at the southern border as Republicans attempt to capitalize on the issue in an election year.The evening roll call proved tight,...

Dueling petitions raise concerns over interior department’s five-year plans to offer drilling leases in Gulf of MexicoOil and gas companies and environmental groups on Monday filed dueling legal challenges to the Biden administration’s five-year plan to offer drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico.The petitions to a US appeals court come four months after the interior department unveiled a congressionally-mandated plan for offshore leasing...

Human rights groups also want to see executive order used to stop US groups from donating millions of dollars each year to settlersThere are growing calls for Joe Biden to use his new executive order sanctioning violent Israeli settlers to also target political leaders, including government ministers, responsible for driving attacks against Palestinians.Pro-Israel groups and others in the US say the order is potentially...

Democrats launch aggressive push back and defend president against Robert Hur’s description in reportDemocrats and the White House on Friday launched an aggressive push back against a special counsel report that pushed Joe Biden’s age and memory to the front and center of the presidential election campaign and spurred a series of Republican attacks on the US president.The special counsel Robert Hur’s report on...

Financial sanctions and visa bans imposed on four individuals as US frustration with Israel growsMiddle East crisis – live updatesJoe Biden has issued an executive order targeting Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been attacking Palestinians, amid fast-growing frustration in Washington at Israel’s trajectory in the midst of its war in Gaza.The order initially imposes financial sanctions and visa bans against four...

Senior adviser will take over responsibilities, but not title, of John Kerry, who stepped down to work on Biden’s re-election campaignThe White House senior adviser John Podesta will add international climate policy to his job responsibilities, replacing the special climate envoy, John Kerry, as the top US official on international climate issues, the White House said on Wednesday.Kerry announced in mid-January that he would...

In the state that is now first on the Democratic primaries calendar, the president offers fresh assurances he would be willing to close down the US-Mexico borderFour years ago, Democrats in South Carolina – and Black Democrats in particular – effectively cleared the field for President Joe Biden’s nomination, ending what might have otherwise been a rowdy primary campaign for the right to face...

The sale follows Turkey’s decision to ratify Sweden’s NATO membershipThe Biden administration has announced its approved a $US23 billion deal to sell F-16 warplanes to Turkey, after Ankara ratified Sweden’s Nato membership, the state department said.The state department will now notify Congress of the agreement, as well as of a separate $8.6bn sale of 40 F-35s to Greece. Continue reading...

Campaign ad, titled Forced, is designed to tie Donald Trump directly to the abortion issueThe Biden re-election campaign rolled out a new campaign ad Sunday, signaling a shift in emphasis to reproductive rights that the White House hopes will carry and define Democrats through the 2024 election cycle.The campaign ad, titled Forced, is designed to tie Donald Trump directly to the abortion issue almost...