Category: WASHINGTON

• Seattle

In major relief for thousands of Indian techies, a US court has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to deny work authorisation to spouses of H-1B visa holders in queue for Green Card, ending the uncertainty that has dogged them for years.

Indian-origin software and robotics engineer, Amit Kshatriya has been appointed as first head of NASA's new Moon to Mars Programme Office at the agency's headquarters in Washington.

Nine US servicemen of the elite 101st Airborne Division - the US Army's sole air assault formation - were killed when two Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a "routine training mission" in US' Kentucky state late on Wednesday, media reports said.

A US Department of State spokesperson has said that Washington is watching Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's case in Indian courts in the wake of the latter's disqualification as an MP following a defamation case.

The shooter -- described as a teenaged girl by authorities -- was "engaged" by law enforcement officers and killed. She was carrying two "assault-type rifles and a handgun", as per police.

US President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Indian-American policy expert Nisha Desai Biswal as Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

Even as the brouhaha over the incident of the tricolour being pulled down at the Indian High Commission building in London had barely died down, videos of a mob attacking the Indian consulate in the US city of San Francisco have surfaced.

Eric Garcetti was confirmed as the next US Ambassador to India on Wednesday, ending a logjam that had left an important American mission abroad without a regular envoy for almost two years and his fate in the balance.

US President Joe Biden on Monday calmed an alarmed nation over the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse vowing to protect depositors' monies, fire the bank management, but declared investors would not be protected as they knew the risks they ran.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in a joint statement that all depositors of Signature Bank "will be made whole".

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said that the federal government will not provide a bailout for Silicon Valley Bank's investors after the bank was abruptly shuttered, but said financial regulators are "concerned" about the impact to depositors and working to address their needs, media reports said.

US President Joe Biden will make a renewed push to overhaul the nation's tax code and dramatically raise the rates paid by corporations and wealthy Americans, the media reported.

A February 2020 science paper that debunked the Covid lab leak theory was commissioned by former White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, according to the US House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Just hours before Secretary of State Antony Blinken reached New Delhi for a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, the US sought to draw a sharp contrast between its own goals for this group of the world's most industrialised nations and Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.

Nikki Haley, who is seeking the Republican nomination to run for White House, on Tuesday slammed Pakistan as one of the "bad guys" the United States had paid millions out of its own weaknesses.

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.