US senators voted to suspend the federal debt limit Thursday, capping weeks of fraught negotiations to eliminate the threat of a disastrous credit default just four days ahead of the deadline set by the Treasury. Economists had warned the country could run out of money to pay its bills by Monday — leaving almost no… Read More »
Marathon crisis talks that produced a tentative deal to prevent a cataclysmic US debt default may yet prove the easy part of a process that turned Sunday to the fraught challenge of securing congressional approval. The agreement announced Saturday by President Joe Biden and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy offers a path back from the default… Read More »
US President Joe Biden said he was ‘optimistic’ as he met Monday with top Republican Kevin McCarthy for their first one-on-one talks in months, with just 10 days left to stop a calamitous debt default. The high-stakes White House meeting came after Biden returned from a trip to Asia early to hammer out a deal… Read More »
Republicans have paused crunch US debt talks less than two weeks before a possible catastrophic default, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Friday, citing lack of movement from Democrats. Negotiators for President Joe Biden have been locked in talks with Republicans as they seek a deal to raise the US borrowing limit and allow the world’s… Read More »
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is poised for a first post-invasion trip to the Asia-Pacific, meeting allies at a G7 summit in Hiroshima as the bloc hit Russia’s “war machine” with further sanctions. The previously unannounced visit was revealed by officials Friday — a rare long-haul foray for the war-time president and an opportunity to huddle with… Read More »
From satellites that can pinpoint the sources of industrial pollution, to others that track hurricane movements by the hour, space has emerged as a key front in the fight against climate change. New launches are — literally and metaphorically — skyrocketing, and giving rise to increased cooperation between space agencies and private companies. Among the… Read More »
Television and film writers, on strike over the “existential crisis” of a Hollywood dream factory that mistreats the source of its stories, are fed up with seeing their profession become more precarious in the age of streaming. “What the studios are trying to do is basically turn our work into gig work, and make it… Read More »
A multi-continental crackdown has halted a major “dark web” drugs marketplace, with international police arresting 288 suspects and recovering more than 50 million euros ($54.8 million) in cash and virtual currency, Europol said Tuesday. The operation called SpecTor by US, British, Brazilian and European law enforcement also netted almost a tonne of drugs and 117… Read More »
Spanish farmer Juan Francisco Abellaneda’s salads and watermelons fill the shelves of European supermarkets winter and summer. But maybe not for much longer. The tap that turned the arid semi-desert of southeastern Spain into Europe’s market garden may be about to be turned off, threatening the intensive farms that feed much of the continent. Spain… Read More »
Credit ratings agency Fitch downgraded France’s debt worthiness a notch to “AA-” from “AA” on Friday, claiming the country’s “fiscal metrics are weaker than peers “Public finances, and in particular the high level of government debt, are a rating weakness,” Fitch said in a commentary on its rating action which said the country’s outlook was… Read More »