Category: WASHINGTON

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A top US lawmaker has cautioned India against "compromised" Chinese elements in technology it may have imported from Russia in view of growing ties between Moscow and Beijing.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also Indian American, said in a separate statement: "Ajay Banga will be a transformative World Bank President as the institution works to deliver on its core development goals and address pressing global challenges, including climate change."

He is also the author of the books, "Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America's Social Justice Scam", published in August 2021 and "Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence", published in September 2022.

Frustration over these visa delays had led many in India to ask if they were symptoms or manifestation of deeper problems in the bilateral relationship. And there was a perception that the delay was intentional.

Several details have emerged of US President Joe Biden's secret trip to Kiev, including the banning of phones during the 10-hour long train journey from Warsaw to the Ukrainian capital, a media report revealed.

US President Joe Biden has said that the last three of the four aerial objects shot out of the skies were probably balloons tied to private companies, recreation or research institutions; but the fourth was a Chinese spy and "I make no apologies", he added, for bringing it down.

The US has reaffirmed its conviction that "free press strengthens democracy" as a general rule without seeking to impose its views directly on the searches of BBC offices by income tax authorities in Delhi and Mumbai.

US President Joe Biden on Tuesday welcomed as "historic" Air India's purchase order of 220 Boeing planes, and said it reflected the strength of the economic partnership with India.

Trump is also running and Haley is going up against her former boss. They will clash in the Republican primaries, which is expected to grow with more candidates, including the most highly anticipated of them all, Ron DeSantis, the two-term Florida Governor.

The first object downed was a Chinese spy balloon on February 4. But officials have acknowledged they know little or nothing about the last three objects - two by the US acting alone and one in a joint operation with bordering Canada; not their origin, owner or purpose.

The US downed yet another flying object on Saturday. This time over Canada in a closely coordinated action between the militaries of the two countries.

A US fighter jet shot down an "object" flying over Alaska on Friday, in a new -- but much swifter -- repeat of the downing of a Chinese spy balloon last week that threw ties between the two countries into a new crisis.

Blinken remarks came after The Washington Post reported that the US believes the suspected surveillance balloon project was being operated from China's coastal Hainan province and targeted countries including Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

The US believes that the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that it shot down on February 4 over the Atlantic Ocean, was part of a wider effort by Beijing to spy on military assets in other countries, including India.

US President Joe Biden cited the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon last week to warn Beijing that Washington "will act" if its sovereignty was threatened.

"We are inviting Internet-users across the Indo-Pacific and beyond to join the Challenge and pledge to practice safe and responsible cyber habits," the White House said in an announcement.

President Biden said he had ordered the military to shoot it down on Wednesday in internal discussions preceding the public disclosure. Military leaders had recommended waiting because of fear of falling debris on civilian population underneath.

The United States has postponed Secretary of State Antony Blinken's upcoming visit to Beijing over a Chinese surveillance balloon floating over America, calling it a "clear and unacceptable violation of national sovereignty (of the United States) and international laws".

"The US and India affirm that the ways in which technology is designed, developed, governed and used should be shaped by our shared democratic values and respect for universal human rights," said a White House factsheet issued on the outcomes of the inaugural meeting.

The Trump Organization is former US President Donald Trump's company, which unlike him, is based in New York. It was held guilty earlier on 17 counts of tax fraud spanning years.

More than 5,000 flights were delayed in and out of the United States while over 800 were cancelled on Wednesday because of a computer outage in the Federal Aviation Administration's 'Notice to Air Missions' system, which provides safety information to flight crews before take-off.

Passengers have been left waiting on the tarmac after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suffered a nationwide system error, which has left flights grounded indefinitely, Mirror reported.

Joseph Fraiman, the lead author of the peer-reviewed research that re-analysed Pfizer & Moderna trials for mRNA Covid-19 vaccine, has tweeted: "I believe the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines need to be withdrawn".