Page 5 - Washington

Semi-automatic rifle ban passes Washington Legislature, awaiting Guv's nod

A ban on dozens of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state Legislature on Wednesday and the governor is expected to sign it into law. The high-powered firearms once banned nationwide are now the weapon of choice among young men responsible for most of the country's devastating mass shootings. The ban comes after multiple failed attempts in the Legislature and in a year that has seen the most mass shootings during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009. The law would cover more than 50 gun models, including AR-15s, AK-47s and similar style rifles, which fire one bullet per trigger pull and automatically reload for a subsequent shot. The bill bans their future sale, distribution, manufacture and importation, although some exemptions are included for sales to law enforcement agencies and the military in Washington. The law would go into effect immediately once it's signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee, who has long advocated for such a ban. When the measure

Post-pandemic development requirements becoming lot more focussed: FM

Speaking at a press briefing in Washington on Thursday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the third pillar will now have to be sustainable goals and other climate-related objectives, climate funding, and so forth.Underlining how India's presidency has brought attention to the necessity to incorporate these factors while still being compatible with World Bank objectives and not merely balancing on them, Sitharaman said that New Delhi from its presidency very clearly highlighted that it's going to be how a perfect balance is traced the developmental goals and climate finance.Addressing the media queries, Sitharaman also highlighted the post-pandemic development requirements and laid emphasis on how the focus should lie on them, solely."Not just development funding for low-income countries, post-pandemic development requirements becoming lot more focussed. We're also highlighting core 2 things for World Bank - extreme poverty alleviation & bringing prosperity post

EU cannot 'blindly follow' Washington, says European Council president

More and more European Union leaders have echoed Macron's comments that Europe should resist pressure to become "America's followers," Michel told the US-based POLITICO news service on Tuesday

FM Nirmala Sitharaman arrives in Washington to attend IMF, WB meetings

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived here to attend the annual spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank and lead the G-20 countries in a series of intense interactions over a host of issues facing the world. Sitharaman, who is leading a high-powered delegation, is scheduled to kick off her public engagements on Monday from the prestigious Peterson Institute for International Economics by speaking on resilience and growth of the Indian economy and interacting with the think-tank community. Among key engagements of the finance minister here include, spring Meetings of International Monetary Fund and the World Bank; hosting the Second G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under India's G20 Presidency and G20-related side events; World Bank Development Committee and IMF Committee Plenaries, interaction with global economists and think-tanks, bilateral engagements and interaction with global business leaders and investors in roundtables. Sitharaman

Khalistan supporters try to incite violence at Indian embassy in Washington

A group of Khalistan supporters gathered in front of the Indian mission here and many of their speakers tried to incite violence, but timely intervention by an alert US Secret Service and local police prevented a repeat of London and San Francisco incidents of vandalism at the mission. Separatist Sikhs, who gathered outside the Indian Embassy in downtown Washington DC on Saturday, heralded abusive language and openly threatened Indian Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu. The Ambassador was not in the embassy at the time of the protest. Some of the speakers were seen inciting fellow protestors to indulge in violence and break the windows and glasses of the building across the road. In their speeches, most of the protestors were seen trying to incite violence not only in India but here as well, including physical damage to the Indian Embassy property. Sensing that things might go out of control, the Secret Service and the local police quickly brought in reinforcement and more

LIVE: India logs 1,890 new Covid-19 cases in a day, active tally jumps

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Protesters disrupt forum on Kashmir at National Press Club in Washington

The International Center for Peace Studies invited Mir Junaid and Touseef Raina from the valley for a panel discussion titled 'Kashmir - From Turmoil to Transformation

TikTok CEO Shou Chew set to enter a Washington fight he can't win

The mobile app's 150 million users in the US and the strength of its content-recommendation engine mean any infraction is viewed as a potential societal threat

TikTok sends influencers to Washington as troubles grow amid possible ban

TikTok is ramping up a public relations campaign to fend off the possibility of a nationwide ban by the Biden administration, and it's bringing some unconventional advocates to help: online influencers. Dozens of TikTok creators some with millions of followers on the video-sharing app came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to lobby in favour of the platform, one day before lawmakers are slated to grill the company's chief executive about concerns over user data falling into the hands of the Chinese government. Shou Zi Chew plans to tell Congress on Thursday that TikTok, which was founded by Chinese entrepreneurs, is committed to user safety, data protection and security, and keeping the platform free from Chinese government influence. He will also answer questions from U.S. lawmakers worried about the social media platform's effects on its young user base. At the heart of TikTok's trouble is a Chinese national intelligence law that would compel Chinese companies to fork over data to th

Washington turns to Wall Street to help rescue dying First Republic Bank

The scene was reminiscent of the last financial crisis, nearly 15 years ago: Faced with a blossoming emergency in the banking sector, worried regulators and policymakers in Washington turned to Wall Street for help. The anxiety this week centred on First Republic Bank in San Francisco, which was once the envy of the banking sector, with its wealthy and well-travelled clientele. Now the bank was reeling after some of those customers withdrew billions of dollars. As early as Tuesday, it became clear to policymakers that the First Republic needed to be rescued or it could fail, two people briefed on the matter told The Associated Press, speaking anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss details. The result was a swift agreement among the nation's leading banks to lay aside competitive instincts to come to First Republic's aid. With Washington greasing the wheels, a coalition of lenders put USD 30 billion in uninsured deposits into the California-based bank as a show of ..

More than 10 US high-altitude balloons flew in our airspace: China

China on Monday said more than 10 US high-altitude balloons have flown in its airspace during the past year without its permission, following Washington's accusation that Beijing operates a fleet of surveillance balloons around the world. The Chinese allegation comes after the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that had crossed from Alaska to South Carolina, sparking a new crisis in bilateral relations that have spiralled to their lowest level in decades. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details about the alleged US balloons, how they had been dealt with or whether they had government or military links. It is also common for US balloons to illegally enter the airspace of other countries," Wang said at a daily briefing. Since last year, US high-altitude balloons have illegally flown over China's airspace more than 10 times without the approval of Chinese authorities." Wang said the US should first reflect on itself and change course, rather than smear and

Indian, US space officials discuss human space exploration in Washington

A highlight of the NASA-ISRO cooperation is the Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission, planned for next year

Washington county mistakenly releases nearly half million partial SSNs

A county in Washington inadvertently released nearly half a million partial Social Security Numbers when responding to a routine public records request in December, according to county officials. The Pierce County Auditor's Office, which mistakenly released the sensitive data, said in a news release that the human error was quickly spotted and that the person who received the SSN digits deleted them within two hours. The requester had not asked for the personal information. First let me say that I am incredibly sorry that this happened, Pierce County Auditor Linda Farmer said in statement. Farmer added that this was not a targeted hack, and that "we have taken steps to ensure it does not happen again. The Social Security number information was included in a routine request for publicly available voter registration data, which typically includes names, addresses and birth dates. Personally identifiable information, including Social Security number information, which can be used to ..

Amazon begins new round of job cuts, lays off over 18,000 people: Report

Amazon has started notifying its employees affected by its new round of layoffs, as a part of its plan to reduce its headcount by around 18,000 people, the media reported

Biden surprised over records at old office post calls for damage assessment

President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was surprised when informed that government records were found by his attorneys at his former office space in Washington. He was asked about the issue after the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee requested that the US intelligence conduct a "damage assessment" of potentially classified documents. Speaking to reporters in Mexico City, Biden said his attorneys "did what they should have done" when they immediately called the National Archives about the discovery at the offices of the Penn Biden Center. He kept an office there after he left the vice presidency in 2017 until shortly before he launched his presidential campaign in 2019. The White House confirmed that the Department of Justice was reviewing "a small number of documents with classified markings" found at the office. "I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office," Biden said in his firs

Japanese PM Kishida highlights security concerns on trip to Europe, US

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida begins a weeklong trip Monday to strengthen military ties with Europe and Britain and bring into focus the Japan-U.S. alliance at a summit in Washington, as Japan breaks from its postwar restraint to take on more offensive roles with an eye toward China. Kishida's talks with U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will highlight his five-nation tour that also takes him to France, Italy, Britain and Canada some of Group of Seven nations with which Japan has stepped up defence ties. His first stop is Paris on Monday. Kishida said his summit with Biden will underscore the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance and how the two countries can work more closely under Japan's new security and defense strategies. Japan in December adopted key security and defense reforms, including a counterstrike capability that makes a break from the country's exclusively self-defense-only postwar principle. Japan says the current deployment of missile interceptors is ...

India-US Trade Policy Forum to meet on January 11 in Washington

The India-US Trade Policy Forum (TPF), a forum to resolve trade and investment issues between the two countries, will hold a meeting in Washington on January 11, the commerce ministry said on Sunday. The TPF has five focus groups -- Agriculture, Investment, Innovation and Creativity (intellectual property rights), Services and Tariff and Non-Tariff Barriers. The meeting will be co-chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Goyal will be on an official visit to New York and Washington DC from 9-11 January, the ministry said. The 12th TPF meeting was held on November 23, 2021, after a gap of four years here. "Working groups were re-activated after the last ministerial. TPF is a platform for continuous engagement between two countries in the area of trade and to further the trade and investment relations between the two countries. Both countries are looking forward to the meeting and confident of making progress on the trade issu

Google settles 2 more location tracking lawsuits worth $29.5 million in US

Google has settled two more location tracking lawsuits worth $29.5 million filed in Washington, DC and Indiana states in the US

Washington-Moscow relationship at its lowest point: Sergey Lavrov

"Undoubtedly, our relations with the European Union have deteriorated to a historic low. The reasons for this are well known," he added

Dimon more crucial than ever to JPMorgan, the bank he's run for 17 years

Once Dimon is done being CEO, the board has said, the company may keep him on as chairman