North America

Biden to decide on second term ‘shortly’ after new year: top aide

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) – President Joe Biden will make a decision on whether he seeks a second term in 2024 “shortly” after the new year, his chief of staff, Ron Klain, said Monday. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Klain said Biden had been consulting with his family. At 80 he is already the oldest president in US history and if he served a second term he would be 86 by the […]

Georgia runoff Senate vote a new test for Biden

by Camille CAMDESSUS Agence France-Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP)  — Choosing between a pastor and a former football star, voters in Georgia will decide Tuesday on a seat in the US Senate in an election with high stakes for Joe Biden’s presidency. Democratic senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker, who is backed by former president Donald Trump, will clash in a hotly contested runoff after neither of the African American candidates earned […]

Prince William awards Earthshot prizes as US visit wraps up

Boston, United States (AFP) by Peter HUTCHISON Prince William honored climate change innovators during a star-studded ceremony in Boston Friday at the culmination of a US trip overshadowed by a race row and estranged brother Harry’s Netflix series. Britain’s heir to the throne rewarded five entrepreneurs with £1 million each ($1.2 million) as part of his Earthshot Prize initiative to support efforts to save the planet from warming temperatures. Annie Lennox and sisters Chloe x Halle […]

US hoax trials spotlight misinformation profiteer

Washington, United States (AFP) by Anuj CHOPRA American radio host Alex Jones reaped millions spouting conspiracy-laden falsehoods that helped drive up sales of products like libido boosters, exploiting an internet ecosystem that experts say makes misinformation a lucrative business. Jones, a serial provocateur who founded the far-right website InfoWars, has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting in an elementary school –- which left 20 first graders and […]

Biden, Macron pledge US-French alliance on Ukraine, democracy

Washington, United States ( AFP) by Francesco Fontemaggi and Sebastian Smith US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron emerged from White House talks Thursday pledging to close ranks in helping Ukraine and pressuring Russia’s Vladimir Putin to make peace. Following lengthy Oval Office talks they also signaled they’d calmed the waters on a burgeoning US-EU trade dispute. Addressing a joint press conference on the second day of Macron’s rare state visit to Washington, […]

PRES. Biden has ‘no intentions’ to meet with Russia’s President Putin now: W.House

Washington, United States (AFP) The White House poured cold water Friday on President Joe Biden’s conditional offer to sit down with President Vladimir Putin, saying he has “no intentions” at present of holding a meeting. “He’s got no intentions to talk to Mr Putin right now. And as he also said, Putin has shown absolutely no inclination to be interested in dialogue of any kind. In fact, quite the contrary,” White House National Security Advisor […]

French Pres. Macron caps US visit with New Orleans trip, meetup with Musk

  New Orleans, United States (AFP) by Francesco FONTEMAGGI President Emmanuel Macron on Friday visited New Orleans, a city emblematic of historic Franco-American ties, to promote the French language and conclude his state visit to the United States. The French president, on the third day of a US trip that included a lavish reception at the White House a night earlier, strolled New Orleans’s historic French Quarter — and held an unannounced face-to-face meeting with […]

Biden, Prince William meet in chilly Boston

  Boston, United States (AFP) US President Joe Biden met briefly Friday with Britain’s Prince William in Boston where the two quickly hit on the most British of conversation topics — the bad weather. As the heir to Britain’s throne strode up outside the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum without an overcoat, Biden remarked that it was “freezing.” Prince William chuckled and later could be heard informing the president that “when we got in […]

Pres. Biden signs emergency law forcing US rail unions to accept wages deal

Washington, United States (AFP) US President Joe Biden signed into law Friday a rare intervention by Congress forcing freight rail unions to accept a salary deal, avoiding a possibly devastating strike — but putting the pro-union Democrat in an awkward political position. Biden signed the law in a brief White House ceremony only a week before unions who had rejected the deal were expected to have gone on strike, threatening crucial supply chains across the […]

Musk kicks Kanye West off Twitter after swastika post

Los Angeles, United States (AFP) by Huw GRIFFITH Elon Musk kicked Kanye West off Twitter on Friday “for incitement to violence,” after the rapper posted a picture that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David. The post came hours after an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in which West sparked outrage by declaring his “love” of Nazis and admiration for Adolf Hitler. West had also shared a picture of a shirtless […]

US to unveil high-tech B-21 stealth bomber

WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The US Air Force on Friday will unveil its new B-21 Raider, a high-tech stealth bomber that can carry nuclear and conventional weapons and is designed to be able to fly without a crew on board. The B-21 — which is on track to cost nearly $700 million per plane and is the first new US bomber in decades — will gradually replace the B-1 and B-2 aircraft, which first […]

Tesla hoping its electric Semi will be heavy duty ‘game changer’

NEW YORK, United States (AFP) – US automaker Tesla on Thursday delivered its first battery-powered heavy duty truck, dubbed “Semi,” and built to tackle long hauls with the handling of a sporty sedan. “That thing looks like it came from the future,” Tesla chief Elon Musk said while handing over the keys to PepsiCo executives at the vehicle maker’s Nevada manufacturing plant. With its sleek design, the Semi has been highly anticipated since Musk unveiled a […]