US President Joe Biden travelled to California to campaign with Governor Gavin Newsom on the eve of a Republican-backed recall race that Democrats have cast as an attempted power grab by acolytes of former president Donald Trump.Biden made a Monday evening appearance with the embattled first-term governor in the port city of Long Beach near Los Angeles, marking Newsom’s final rally before a special election on Tuesday that will test the power of Trump’s appeal in a deeply Democratic state.The…

The United States and the European Union have agreed to aim to cut emissions of the planet-warming gas methane by around a third by the end of this decade and are pushing other major economies to join them, according to documents seen by Reuters.Their pact comes as Washington and Brussels seek to galvanise other major economies ahead of a world summit to address climate change in Glasgow, Scotland, in November, and could have a significant impact on the energy, agriculture and waste industries…

A cyber surveillance company based in Israel developed a tool to break into Apple iPhones with a never-before-seen technique that has been in use since at least February, internet security watchdog group Citizen Lab said on Monday.The discovery is important because of the critical nature of the vulnerability, which requires no user interaction and affects all versions of Apple’s iOS, OSX, and watchOS, except for those updated on Monday.The tool developed by the Israeli firm, named NSO Group,…

US President Joe Biden will host the leaders of the Quad alliance, which agreed earlier this year to counter China’s military build-up in the Asia-Pacific, at the White House next week as he seeks to deepen the group’s cooperation.The first in-person meeting of the Quad’s leaders – Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga – will take place on September 24, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced on…

Canada’s Conservative Party has China in its election crosshairs amid the worst period of diplomatic relations in recent history – prompting a strong pushback from Beijing’s ambassador and state media, which lambasted the opposition party’s “hostile” platform for catering to “toxic” anti-China sentiment.The platform would “invite counterstrikes” if a Conservative government put its China policies into effect, the state-run Global Times reported on Wednesday.But despite the rhetoric on either…

Three companies of exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui have agreed to pay US$539 million in penalties to settle charges over illegal cryptocurrency sales, the top US financial market watchdog said on Monday.GTV Media Group, Saraca Media Group and Voice of Guo Media Inc last year raised funds through the sale of digital assets called G-Coins and G-Dollars, as well as stock, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).However, the agency said the sale was not registered.The…

The United States remains prepared to engage with North Korea, a White House spokeswoman said on Monday, despite Pyongyang’s announcement that it had tested a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend.“Our position has not changed when it comes to North Korea, we remain prepared to engage,” principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.North Korea’s state media announced on Monday what it said were successful tests of a new long-range cruise missile that analysts said…

Britain’s Prince Andrew plans to challenge a US court’s jurisdiction over a civil lawsuit by a woman who accused him of sexually assaulting and battering her two decades ago, according to a Monday court filing.In the filing with the US District Court in Manhattan, a lawyer for Andrew said the prince also plans to contest that he was properly served with the lawsuit by Virginia Giuffre, who has said she was also abused by the financier Jeffrey Epstein.Lawyers for Giuffre did not immediately…

The US Capitol Police arrested a California man with multiple knives in his truck marked with white supremacist symbols near the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, police said on Monday.Around midnight, a Capitol Police officer was on patrol when he noticed a pickup truck with a bayonet and a machete inside of it, and a swastika and other white supremacist symbols painted on it, the police department said in a news release.The truck was parked near the DNC headquarters,…

Epic Games filed a notice of appeal on Sunday following a judge’s decision in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple Inc.US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers mostly sided with Apple, rejecting Epic’s claims that the iPhone maker is a monopoly. She also did not rule that Apple needs to restore Fortnite, Epic’s hit game at the centre of the lawsuit, to the App Store or Epic’s Apple developer account. Rogers also rejected the need for third-party App Stores and did not force Apple to lower its…

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Saturday released a newly declassified document related to its investigation of the September 11 attacks on the United States and allegations of Saudi government support for the hijackers, following an executive order by US President Joe Biden.The partially redacted 16-page document released by the FBI on the 20th anniversary of the attacks detailed contacts between the hijackers and several Saudi officials, but it did not draw a definitive…

Britain’s Emma Raducanu has won the US Open women's singles title after beating Leylah Fernandez of Canada 6-4, 6-3 in the final. Raducanu threatened to break for a 2-0 lead in the second set, only for Fernandez to put her disappointment behind her and save three break points. The Canadian then broke serve herself to lead 2-1 but back came Raducanu with what proved the decisive break of the match. A run of four straight games took her to the brink of victory but Fernandez was not finished,…

Britain’s Emma Raducanu has won the US Open women's singles title after beating Leylah Fernandez of Canada 6-4, 6-3 in the final.Raducanu threatened to break for a 2-0 lead in the second set, only for Fernandez to put her disappointment behind her and save three break points.The Canadian then broke serve herself to lead 2-1 but back came Raducanu with what proved the decisive break of the match.A run of four straight games took her to the brink of victory but Fernandez was not finished, saving…

Former US president Donald Trump used the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks to slam the “inept administration” of Joe Biden for its “incompetence” over the Afghan withdrawal in a video message on Saturday.“This is a very sad day,” Trump said in the message, adding that September 11 “represents great sorrow for our country.”“It is also a sad time for the way our war on those that did such harm to our country ended last week,” he continued.Trump was referring to the end of the US war in…

World leaders sent messages of solidarity Saturday on the 20th anniversary of September 11, saying the attackers had failed to destroy Western values.Here are some reactions:Britain“We can now say with the perspective of 20 years that they (the jihadists) failed to shake our belief in freedom and democracy,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.“They failed to drive our nations apart, or cause us to abandon our values, or to live in permanent fear.”Queen Elizabeth, in a separate message,…

At a sombre ceremony in lower Manhattan on Saturday, US President Joe Biden marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, standing silently among a crowd of mourners while the nearly 3,000 victims’ names were read aloud by family members.“No matter how much time has passed, these commemorations bring everything painfully back as if you just got the news a few seconds ago,” Biden said in a video released by the White House as part of the memorial activities.The ceremony,…

Three US senators are urging Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to sanction Chinese Internet of Things (IoT) company Tuya Smart, calling the New York-listed company a national security threat that undermines Americans’ privacy.Republican senators Marco Rubio, Rick Scott and Tom Cotton said the Chinese company is required to share user data with its government under the country’s Data Security Law, which went into effect this month, in a public letter published on the US Senate’s website on Friday…

The deadly terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, prompted an outcry around the world: “We are all Americans.” Washington’s policies realigned around fighting terrorism and bilateral relationships strengthened or crumbled depending on where other governments stood. In the latest in a series about the legacy of September 11, Jodi Xu Klein recounts the memories of Betty Ann Ong, the Chinese-American flight attendant who raised the first alarm about the hijackings that…

Fully vaccinated people were 11 times less likely to die of Covid-19 and 10 times less likely to be hospitalised compared to the unvaccinated since highly contagious Delta became the most common variant, US health authorities said on Friday.The data came from one of three new papers published by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, all of which underscored Covid-19 vaccines’ ongoing effectiveness against severe outcomes.For reasons that are not yet well understood, data from one of…

Two decades after the collapse of the World Trade Centre, people are still coming forward to report illnesses that might be related to dust that billowed over the city after the terror attack.To date, the US has spent US$11.7 billion on care and compensation for those exposed to the toxic dust and fires that burned at ground zero for weeks after the attacks. More than 40,000 people have got payments from a government fund for people with illnesses potentially linked to the attacks.More than 111…