South China Morning Post USA

Afghanistan: US drone strike kills Islamic State ‘planner’ of Kabul airport bombing

The United States military struck back at Islamic State on Saturday, bombing an Isis member in Afghanistan less than 48 hours after a devastating suicide bombing claimed by the group killed as many as 169 Afghans and 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.US Central Command said the US conducted a drone strike against an Islamic State member in Nangahar believed to be involved in planning attacks against the US in Kabul.The strike killed one individual. Spokesman William Urban said…

Biden meets Israeli PM Naftali Bennett in shadow of Kabul airport blasts, a day after scheduled appointment

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with President Joe Biden on Friday, a day after a deadly bomb attack on the US Afghanistan evacuation mission forced a postponement and cast a shadow on an Israeli charm offensive.“My heart goes out, our hearts go out, to all those who we’ve lost,” Biden said after the two met one-on-one, a day after originally planned.Bennett began his remarks with condolences before announcing: “I bring with me from Jerusalem a new spirit of goodwill.”Bennett had…

Post-Kabul airport attack, the West faces ‘bitter’ reality in Afghanistan: work with old foe Taliban to keep Islamic State at bay

The deadly attack on Kabul airport has underlined the realpolitik facing Western powers in Afghanistan: engaging with the Taliban may be their best chance to prevent the country sliding into a breeding ground for Islamist militancy.Almost two weeks after the Taliban’s surprise return to power, officials in Europe are beginning to acknowledge that their pragmatic option is to put aside distaste for the country’s new leaders and work with them instead.“It is clear: the Taliban are reality in…

US investigation of Covid-19 origins fails to reach conclusive assessment

A widely anticipated US government investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic failed to yield a conclusive assessment, according to a summary of the probe’s findings released on Friday.While dismissing the possibility that Sars-CoV-2 was developed as a biological weapon, intelligence community (IC) analysts trying to determine Covid-19’s origins remained divided about whether the virus came from a lab leak or jumped from an animal reservoir to humans naturally.Four IC “elements”…

US Commerce Department denies easing trade restrictions on Huawei Technologies

The US Commerce Department has denied any loosening of its trade restrictions on Huawei Technologies – but did not refute reports that the Chinese tech giant has won approval to procure American semiconductors for its automotive parts business.“The policy has not been eased or amended,” said a department spokesperson said on Friday.The department was responding to the outcry that followed the recent news that it had approved giving an exemption to Huawei, which has been on the department’s …

Afghanistan evacuations continue but more attacks feared after death toll from Kabul airport blasts passes 100

Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency on Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover and left more than 100 dead. The US said further attempted attacks were expected ahead of Tuesday’s deadline for foreign troops to leave, ending the country’s longest war.Thursday’s bombings near Kabul’s international airport killed at least 95 Afghans and 13 US troops. The true toll could be higher because bodies may…

Microsoft cloud databases exposed for thousands of customers in unexploited vulnerability, company says

Microsoft on Thursday warned thousands of its cloud computing customers, including some of the world’s largest companies, that intruders could have the ability to read, change or even delete their main databases, according to a copy of the email and a cybersecurity researcher.The vulnerability is in Microsoft Azure’s flagship Cosmos DB database. A research team at security company Wiz discovered it was able to access keys that control access to databases held by thousands of companies. Wiz…

Indonesia to free US woman who helped boyfriend kill her mother in Bali

A US woman, who was convicted in Indonesia of assisting her then-boyfriend to kill her mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase, will be released from prison in October, her Indonesian lawyer and a government official said.Heather Mack was 18 when she was arrested a day after Sheila von Wiese-Mack’s body was discovered in the boot of a taxi parked near the St Regis Bali Resort in 2014. She was handed a 10-year sentence.Her Indonesian lawyer and a government official on Thursday said she would…

Washington state eradicates first ‘murder hornet’ nest of the year

Washington state eradicated its first Asian giant hornet nest of the year by vacuuming out 113 worker hornets and removing bark and decayed wood near the nest, Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) officials said on Thursday.The so-called stinging murder hornets, the world’s largest hornets, can grow to two inches (5cm) in length and prey on native bee and wasp populations, consuming honeybee hives and threatening agriculture.The hornets are not native to North America. They were…

US considers extending tariff relief for Chinese medical gear used to fight Covid-19

The administration of US President Joe Biden will soon decide whether to extend tariff exemptions for Chinese-made masks, gloves and other goods needed to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a notice set to be published on Friday by the US Trade Representative’s office.“With the recent spread of the Delta variant, COVID-19 cases in the United States are increasing again,” the notice says.“In light of these changing circumstances, including the ability of the United States to obtain…

US Capitol Police officers sue Donald Trump over January 6 Capitol attack

Seven US Capitol Police officers filed a lawsuit against former US president Donald Trump and members of right-wing extremist groups on Thursday, accusing them of being directly responsible for the January 6 attack on Congress.The lawsuit is one of several that have been filed against Trump over the attempt by thousands of his supporters to prevent the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s November 2020 presidential election victory.The latest suit was filed in US District Court…

Mike Pompeo takes his own arrows over the Afghanistan collapse

This story is published in a content partnership with POLITICO. It was originally reported by Meredith McGraw on politico.com on August 26, 2021.While the chaotic drawdown of the war in Afghanistan has taken a toll on President Joe Biden’s standing back home, it has also complicated political matters for one prominent Republican with eyes seemingly on the White House.Few GOP officials have been more intimately involved with US-Afghan relations than Mike Pompeo, who as Secretary of State helped…

Afghanistan: two blasts outside Kabul airport kill at least 13

Two suspected suicide bombs were detonated outside Kabul’s international airport on Thursday, killing at least 13 people including US military service members and children.The detonations followed warnings by the US and other countries of potential attacks by Islamic State militants at Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where the US has been evacuating thousands of Americans, individuals from allied countries and Afghans with special visas.The US Defence Department confirmed one…

China to address ‘plague’ of soaring shipping rates, insufficient capacity weighing on SMEs

With record high shipping rates and insufficient transport capacity set to “plague” companies in China into next year, Beijing is set to study targeted measures to help exporters.Surging prices and gridlocks are wreaking havoc on global supply chains, the cost of sending a container from Asia to the east coast of the United States this week rising by 442 per cent from a year earlier to US$20,057 per 40-foot equivalent unit, according to US-based freight-tracking firm Freightos on Wednesday.“The…

Shipping, supply chain crunch could drag into 2022 as world economy awaits Delta variant shock

A supply chain crunch that was meant to be temporary now looks like lasting well into next year as the surging Delta variant upends factory production in Asia and disrupts shipping, posing more shocks to the world economy.Manufacturers reeling from shortages of key components and higher raw material and energy costs are being forced into bidding wars to get space on vessels, pushing freight rates to records and prompting some exporters to raise prices or simply cancel shipments altogether. “We…

First day in office, New York governor reveals 12,000 more Covid-19 deaths

New York Governor Kathy Hochul revealed 12,000 more people died of Covid-19 than was reported under her disgraced predecessor, making good on her promise for greater transparency on just her second day leading the state.The state is now reporting a total of 55,400 people died in New York from coronavirus, based on data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Hochul said in a statement.That’s an increase of 12,000 over the 43,400 reported by Andrew Cuomo as of his last day in office…

US tech firms pledge to strengthen cybersecurity with billions in investment after meeting with Biden

Some of the country’s leading technology companies have committed to investing billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defences and to train skilled workers, the White House announced Wednesday following President Joe Biden’s private meeting with top executives.The Washington gathering was held during a relentless stretch of ransomware attacks that have targeted critical infrastructure and major corporations, as well as other illicit cyber operations that US authorities have linked to…

What is the Indo-Pacific region and why does the US keep using this term?

During US Vice-President Kamala Harris’ major foreign policy speech in Singapore on August 24, she delivered a sharp rebuke to China for its incursions in the South China Sea, warning that Beijing’s actions constitute “coercion” and “intimidation”.Affirming that Washington would support its allies in the region against Beijing’s advances, Harris also laid out the Biden administration’s vision for the region, saying the US would “stand united with our allies and our partners in Southeast Asia in…

R. Kelly forced victims to write fake blackmail letters he could use in his defence, court hears

R&B singer R. Kelly forced his girlfriends to write fake blackmail letters that he could use to defend himself in case he was charged with sexually abusing them, one of his accusers testified on Wednesday at his New York City trial.The witness, testifying as a “Jane Doe” in federal court in Brooklyn, read for the jury parts of one letter in which she told Kelly that if he tried to break up with her, “I’m going to tell everyone you raped me. … I’m going to say you raped me since I was a minor…

Judge sanctions Sidney Powell and other pro-Trump lawyers over voter fraud claims

A US judge on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Sidney Powell, a former campaign lawyer for former US President Donald Trump, and other lawyers over a lawsuit they filed in Michigan seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory.In a highly anticipated written ruling, US District Judge Linda Parker in Detroit said the pro-Trump lawyers should have investigated the Republican former president’s voter fraud claims more carefully before suing.Parker formally requested that a disciplinary…

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