Category: WASHINGTON

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Ajay Banga, the World Bank's new President, called for the private sector to play a larger role to help emerging countries in their battle against climate change in his first interviews on Sunday.

The US Justice Department has charged former President Donald Trump with 37 counts in connection with his handling of classified documents from his presidency that he carried with him while leaving the White House at the end of his term in January 2021, according to an indictment unsealed on Friday.

Trump, who became the first former President in US history to face federal criminal charges, announced his indictment in a post on his social media platform Truth Social on Thursday.

The meeting was held here on Tuesday. Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra led the India delegations and Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland and Undersecretary of Commerce Alan Estevez co-led the US side.

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US, the White House on Monday dismissed concerns about the health of democracy in India, saying it is vibrant and anybody who happens to go to New Delhi can see that for themselves.

US Congress leaders have invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint meeting of lawmakers during his upcoming state visit in June, setting him up to become the first Indian leader to this rare honor Washington D.C. affords to foreign leaders.

With the victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said that the grand old party will surprise everyone in the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections as there is a hidden undercurrent building within the country.

"We firmly believe that inviting Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver a joint address to Congress would further strengthen the deep and enduring friendship between the US and India," they added in the letter.

The four leaders also said they "strongly oppose destabilising or unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion", without naming China, which has aggressively pushed its territorial claims in the region, including against India.

The US State Department on Monday noted "targeted attacks" on minorities, "home demolitions" and hate speeches against Muslims in India among threats facing religious freedom around the world.

Thatikonda, along with another victim of the shooting at a shopping mall in Allen, Texas on Saturday, was identified by authorities on Monday. Besides them, six more people were killed in the incident.

The decision offered a victory to the Biden administration as it defends access to the drug in the latest fierce legal battle over reproductive rights in the US. The President praised the decision and said he continues to stand by the FDA's approval of the pill, The Guardian reported.

Jake Auchincloss, a two-term Democrat from Massachusetts, said on Wednesday that he worries that India could become instead an "aggravating third factor" if it did not actually join up with Russia and China.

California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing had filed this case in 2020 based on a complaint from an unidentified employee of the company making it the first case of caste-based discrimination reported in the US.

The global economy is heading for the weakest period of growth since 1990 as higher interest rates set by the world's top central banks drive up borrowing costs for households and businesses, the head of the International Monetary Fund has warned, a media outlet reported.

It's a rare occurrence for the Indian American community, which is considered a model minority in the US, with the highest levels of education and mean household income. There have been few, if any at all, instances of their Involvement in crime or activism-related criminal offences.

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.