A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan's Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking charges, officials said Tuesday. The deal came as President Joe Biden, who oversaw the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, handed power over to returning President Donald Trump. The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the normalisation of ties between the US and Afghanistan, but that likely remains a tall order as most countries in the world still don't recognize the militants' rule. The Taliban's Foreign Ministry in Kabul confirmed the swap, saying two unidentified US citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in 2008. The family of Ryan Corbett, one American held by the Taliban, confirmed he had been released in a statement. Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family at the time of the 2021 collapse of the US-backed governmen
Joe Biden spent his final full day as president Sunday in South Carolina, urging Americans to keep the faith in a better day to come and reflecting on the impact of the civil rights movement in pushing him into politics. On the eve of Monday's inauguration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump, Biden delivered a final farewell from a state that holds special meaning after his commanding win in its 2020 Democratic primary set him up to achieve his life's goal of being elected president of the United States. Biden spoke to the congregation of Royal Missionary Baptist Church about why he entered public service Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. were political heroes, he said and he thanked South Carolina for its support: I owe you big. Monday is the federal holiday honouring King, the slain civil rights leader. We know the struggle to redeeming the soul of this nation is difficult and ongoing," Biden said. We must hold on to hope. We must stay engaged. We must alwa
Outraged at the continuing anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh, Hindu Americans in the Silicon Valley have launched a massive awareness "Ask Yunus Why" campaign that includes expensive billboards and large hoardings in this part of California. The first billboard of the campaign by the United Hindu Council was unveiled at a prominent location on 880-N and Market Street in Oakland before Christmas. Over the next three months, digital billboards at six key locations across the Bay Area, including high-traffic zones and major bridges, will display messages designed to raise awareness and spark conversations around this critical issue, a media release said. The harm and violence being perpetrated on the Hindu minority and other minorities in Bangladesh under the governance of Mohammad Yunus is highly regrettable. He and his government should be inclusive of all Bangladeshis and stop oppressing the minorities based on their religion, the council said in a statement. On behalf of the ...
Russell Hedrick, a North Carolina farmer, flies drones to spray fertilisers on his corn, soybean and wheat fields at a fraction of what it would cost him to use a conventional ground spreader. As a volunteer rescuer, Hedrick uses thermal drones to search for people trapped by mudslides and cargo drones to send water and baby formula to those who are stranded something he did after Hurricane Helene. Now he is fretting that one day he will have to ground his drone fleet. Most commercial drones sold in the United States, including those used by Hedrick, are made in China. They have become a target of US lawmakers, who see the dominance of Chinese drones not only as an espionage threat but as a commercial threat because they make it nearly impossible for American manufacturers to compete. It's another front in the US-China economic and technological competition that's likely to intensify with the return to the White House in January of Republican Donald Trump, who has promised to get .
Elon Musk, clad in tuxedo and black tie, took the stage at President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after the election with all the swagger of the winning candidate himself. The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear, the clearest mandate. The people have spoken. The people want change," Musk told the audience of Trump's biggest donors, campaign leaders and appointment seekers. We are going to shake things up. It's going to be a revolution. Musk's attachment to Trump has created an alliance between America's most powerful politician and its richest businessman and roughly the same percentages of Americans have favourable views of each, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Experts are split on whether that overlap in public opinion is a good or bad thing for Musk's businesses or for Trump's politics. But it could have far-reaching effects in both realms. Musk, whose net worth tops $400 billion, oversees six
Late Wednesday evening on the US East Coast, Google searches about emigrating were hitting all-time highs for all three countries, according to a Google official
India has stated it is taking seriously the allegations of a plot to kill an American citizen, the United States on Tuesday said as a team of visiting Indian officials had a meeting with the officials of the State Department and Department of Justice here. I don't have a readout on the meeting yet. The meeting was here as a follow-up on conversations we have been having with the Government of India at the senior-most levels over the past several months, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference. They have told us that they are taking the allegations seriously, that the activities contained in the DOJ indictment do not represent government policy, Miller said in response to a question. So the meeting that happened this week or that is happening today by India's inquiry was to discuss their active investigation into the matter, for us to update them on our active investigation into the matter, and to continue to share sides about steps .
Security for America's election systems has become so robust that Russia, Iran or any other foreign adversary will not be able to alter the outcome of this year's presidential race, the head of the nation's cybersecurity agency said Wednesday. Jen Easterly told The Associated Press in an interview that voting, ballot-counting and other election infrastructure is more secure today than it's ever been. Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election, said Easterly, director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Federal agencies have warned of growing attempts by Russia and Iran in particular to influence voters before the November 5 election and election conspiracy theories have left millions of Americans doubting the validity of election results. Easterly said those efforts are primarily aimed at sowing discord among Americans and undermining faith in the security
The high cost of living and jobs are the top issues for Americans according to opinion polls
Israeli soldiers killed an American woman participating in an anti-settlement protest in the West Bank on Friday, another protester who witnessed the shooting told The Associated Press. Two doctors said she was shot in the head. US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the death of the 26-year-old woman but did not say whether she had been shot by Israeli troops. He said the US was gathering more information about the circumstances of her death and would have more to say. He and the doctors who treated her released the woman's name, but the activist organisation she was volunteering with, the International Solidarity Movement, said her family had asked she not be identified. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The woman who was fatally shot was attending a weekly demonstration against settlement expansion, protests that have grow
Russia's Foreign Ministry announced 92 additions Wednesday to its list of Americans banned from entering the country, including some journalists who formerly worked in Russia, and law enforcement and business people. A ministry statement said the bans were imposed in response to the Russophobic course pursued by the Biden administration with the declared goal of 'inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow.' It said the banned journalists represent leading liberal-globalist publications involved in the production and dissemination of fakes' about Russia and the Russian armed forces. The new list of banned Americans includes 11 current or former staff members of the Wall Street Journal including its Editor in Chief, Emma Tucker. She had repeatedly criticised Russia for the arrest and conviction on espionage charges of WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, who spent 16 months behind bars before being released in August in a prisoner exchange. The ban has also been imposed on five New York Time
President Joe Biden promised the day of the attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport that we will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay.
According to the Clever study, 73 per cent of Americans are content where they are, but 59 per cent feel dissatisfied, and 43 per cent admitted to feeling embarrassed by their state
The Biden administration asked the court to reject lawsuits by TikTok, ByteDance and a group of TikTok creators seeking to block the law that could ban the app used by 170 million Americans
Travel records were projected to fall with people jamming airports and crowding highways to reach Thursday's Independence Day celebrations
Half of US adults in the report think college is worth the cost, but only as long as they don't need to take out a loan
More than 40 per cent of Americans now label China as an enemy, up from a quarter two years ago and reaching the highest level in five years, according to an annual Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday. Half of Americans think of China as a competitor, and only 6 per cent consider the country a partner, according to the report. The findings come as the Biden administration is seeking to stabilise US-China relations to avoid miscalculations that could result in clashes, while still trying to counter the world's second-largest economy on issues from Russia's war in Ukraine to Taiwan and human rights. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen have both recently visited China in the administration's latest effort to responsibly manage the competition with Beijing. Despite those overtures, President Joe Biden has been competing with former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee in November's election, on being tough on China. The
Since retiring two years ago, Joan Harris has upped her travel game. Once or twice a year, she visits her two adult children in different states. She's planning multiple other trips, including to a science fiction convention in Scotland and a Disney cruise soon after that, along with a trip next year to neolithic sites in Great Britain. I really have more money to spend now than when I was working, said Harris, 64, an engineer who worked 29 years for the federal government and lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Back then, she and her now-ex-husband were paying for their children's college educations and piling money into savings accounts. Now, she's splurging a bit and, for the first time, is willing to pay for first-class plane tickets. She plans to fly business class to Scotland and has arranged for a higher-level suite on the cruise. I suddenly realised, with my dad getting old and my mom dying, it's like, No, you can't take it with you,' she said. I could become incapacitated t
Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in the United States are more likely than the overall adult population to believe in human-caused climate change, according to a new poll. It also suggests that partisanship may not have as much of an impact on this group's environmental views, compared to Americans overall. A recent poll from AAPI Data and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds 84% of AAPI adults agree climate change exists. In comparison, 74% of U.S. adults hold the same sentiment. And three-quarters of AAPI adults who accept climate change is real attribute it entirely or mostly to human activity. Among the general U.S. adult population surveyed in an AP-NORC poll in September, only 61% say humans are causing it. The poll is part of an ongoing project exploring the views of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, whose views can usually not be highlighted in other surveys because of small sample sizes and lack of .