PARIS, Sept 4, 2023 (AFP) – Aircraft engine manufacturer CFM, a joint venture between GE and Safran, has alerted its clients to a supplier who may have sold non-certified parts. The engines concerned are the CFM56 used on the previous generation of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft. Some 34,000 CFM56 engines were manufactured but there is as yet no information as how many may have been fitted with fake parts, which Bloomberg News […]
North America
Bill Richardson, globe-trotting US diplomat, dead at 75
WASHINGTON, Sept 2, 2023 (AFP) – Bill Richardson, a veteran Democratic politician and former US ambassador to the United Nations who later spent decades negotiating the release of Americans detained around the world, has died at age 75, his associates said Saturday. Richardson, who also served as governor of New Mexico and the US energy secretary, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Friday night, the Richardson Center for Global Engagement said in a statement. […]
Meta, Google balk as Canada spells out new online news law
OTTAWA, Sept 1, 2023 (AFP) – Ottawa on Friday spelled out how a new law requiring digital giants to pay publishers for news content will work in practice, including how much it could cost Meta and Google. The bill aims to support a struggling Canadian news sector that has seen a flight of advertising dollars and hundreds of publications closed in the last decade. Effectively it targets only Google and Meta — which control about […]
‘Extremely dangerous’ Hurricane Idalia makes landfall on Florida coast
ST. PETERSBURG, United States, Aug 30, 2023 (AFP) – Hurricane Idalia slammed into northwest Florida as an “extremely dangerous” Category 3 storm early Wednesday, as officials warned of catastrophic impacts including storm surges of up to 16 feet (about five meters). Authorities in the southern US state described Idalia and its potentially deadly high surging waters as a once-in-a-lifetime event for Florida’s northwest coast, ordering mass evacuations and issuing flood alerts. The US National Hurricane […]
11 hospitalized as flight hits turbulence en route to Atlanta
Hurricane Idalia poses grave threat to Florida with 15-foot storm surge and potential catastrophic devastation
STEINHATCHEE, United States, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – Hurricane Idalia intensified Tuesday as it churned toward the west coast of Florida, triggering mass evacuation orders and flood alerts as authorities warned of life-threatening ocean surge and catastrophic destruction when the storm rages ashore early Wednesday. The US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Idalia, which earlier raked western Cuba, had strengthened to a Category 2 storm with winds of 100 miles (161 kilometers) per hour, and […]
China warns US against ‘disastrous’ trade curbs
BEIJING, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – China’s premier warned US officials Tuesday that moves to “politicise” trade issues would prove “disastrous” for the global economy, state media reported. US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo is currently on a four-day bridge-building visit to China aimed at better managing tensions between the world’s two largest economies. But a meeting with Premier Li Qiang Tuesday saw the top official lay into American trade curbs against Beijing, which Washington insists […]
Meta fights sprawling Chinese ‘Spamouflage’ operation
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – Meta on Tuesday said it purged thousands of Facebook accounts that were part of a widespread online Chinese spam operation trying to covertly boost China and criticize the West. The campaign, which became known as “Spamouflage”, was active across more than 50 platforms and forums including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, formerly known as Twitter, according to a Meta threat report. “We assess that it’s the largest, […]
Florida orders evacuations ahead of ‘extremely dangerous’ Idalia
GAINESVILLE , United States, Aug 29, 2023 (AFP) – Residents along Florida’s west coast were under orders to evacuate Tuesday ahead of Hurricane Idalia’s arrival, as forecasters said the storm was strengthening over an exceptionally warm Gulf of Mexico and would likely become “extremely dangerous” before landfall. Idalia, which the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said had become a Category 1 hurricane overnight, was churning Tuesday morning hundreds of miles off Florida’s southwest, and bringing […]
Tropical Storm Idalia strengthens near Mexico, heads to Florida
MIAMI, Aug 28, 2023 (AFP) – Tropical Storm Idalia was strengthening in the Caribbean on Monday, buffeting southeastern Mexico with wind and rain, with forecasters predicting it will become a major hurricane before reaching Florida later in the week. The storm, which is not forecast to make landfall in Mexico, will travel across western Cuba and the Gulf of Mexico before reaching northwest Florida, the US National Hurricane Center said. Idalia was “intensifying as it […]
Tropical Storm Idalia forms near Mexico, heads to Florida
MEXICO CITY, Aug 27, 2023 (AFP) – Tropical Storm Idalia formed Sunday in the Caribbean, buffeting southeastern Mexico with wind and rain, as forecasters predicted it will strengthen to a hurricane before reaching Florida later in the week. The storm, which is not forecast to make landfall in Mexico, will travel across the Gulf of Mexico before reaching northwest Florida, the US National Hurricane Center said. Idalia will create “increasing risk of life-threatening storm surge […]
Florida gunman driven by racial ‘hate’ kills 3: authorities
WASHINGTON, Aug 26, 2023 (AFP) – A gunman in Jacksonville, Florida driven by racial hatred shot dead three Black people in a discount store Saturday before killing himself after a standoff with police, authorities said. “He targeted a certain group of people and that’s Black people. That’s what he said he wanted to kill. And that’s very clear,” Jacksonville Sheriff TK Waters told a news conference about the gunman, who was white and in his […]
