Author: Disha Mishra
(Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden called the Equal Rights Amendment “the law of the land,” on Friday, backing an effort to enshrine the change into the U.S. Constitution even though it long ago failed to secure the approval of enough states to become an amendment. “Today, I affirmed the Equal Rights Amendment to have cleared all the necessary hurdles to be added to the U.S. Constitution now,” Biden said. “The Equal Rights Amendment is the law of the land now. It’s the 28th amendment to the Constitution now.” t was unclear what practical impact Biden’s comments might have. The…
(Reuters) – TikTok warned late Friday it will go dark in the United States on Sunday unless President Joe Biden’s administration provides assurances to companies like Apple and Google that they will not face enforcement actions when a ban takes effect. The statement came hours after the Supreme Court upheld a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell it, putting the popular short-video app on track to go dark in just two days. The court’s 9-0 decision throws the social media platform – and its 170 million…
(Reuters) – Four people were killed early on Saturday in the centre of Kyiv in a night-time Russian attack, said Timur Tkachenko, head of the Ukrainian capital’s military administration. Tkachenko posted on the Telegram messaging app that the deaths had occurred in the city’s Shevchenkivskyi district. He said falling debris had also hit the Holosiivskyi district on the west bank of the Dnipro River that runs through the capital and in the Desnyanskyi district on the opposite bank. Public broadcaster Suspilne posted on Telegram pictures of emergency crews working amid piles of shattered glass. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air…
(Reuters) – Chinese President Xi Jinping said Beijing is ready to work with Hanoi to build a community with a shared future of strategic significance, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. The remark came in a congratulatory message by Xi to Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party chief To Lam and President Luong Cuong to mark the 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries. China’s concept of building a “community with a shared future” is extended to countries with which it desires to build a long term relationship based on strong alignment of goals, interests and even ideology.…
(Reuters) – South Korea’s impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol attended a court hearing on Saturday to fight a request by investigators to extend his detention on accusations of insurrection, his lawyer said. Yoon on Wednesday became the country’s first sitting president to be arrested, in a criminal probe related to his short-lived declaration of martial law on Dec. 3. Investigators requested a detention warrant on Friday to extend their custody of Yoon for up to 20 days. He has been refusing to talk to investigators and has been held in Seoul Detention Centre since his arrest. Police were seen breaking…
(Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian deepened military ties between their countries on Friday by signing a 20-year strategic partnership that is likely to worry the West. Under the agreement, Russia and Iran will boost cooperation in a range of areas including their security services, military drills, warship port visits and joint officer training. Neither will allow their territory to be used for any action that threatens the other and will provide no help to an aggressor attacking either nation, according to the text, which also said they would work together to counter military…
(Reuters) – Israel’s cabinet approved a deal with Palestinian militant group Hamas for a ceasefire and release of hostages in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Saturday, a day ahead of the agreement’s scheduled start. In the early hours of Saturday after meeting for more than six hours, the government ratified the agreement that could pave the way for an end to the 15-month-old war in the Palestinian enclave, which Hamas controls. “The Government has approved the framework for the return of the hostages. The framework for the hostages’ release will come into effect on Sunday,”…
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld on Friday a law banning TikTok in the United States on national security grounds if its Chinese parent company ByteDance does not sell the short-video app by Sunday, as the justices in a 9-0 decision declined to rescue a platform used by about half of all Americans. The justices ruled that the law, passed by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress last year and signed by Democratic President Joe Biden, did not violate the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment protection against government abridgment of free speech. The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that had upheld…
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Israel on Friday to accelerate its troop withdrawal from southern Lebanon, as a deadline nears for the pullout under the terms of a ceasefire that ended the war with Hezbollah last year. Speaking during a visit to Beirut, Macron also said Lebanon’s military must have a total monopoly on weapons, and he voiced France’s support for strengthening the Lebanese army’s deployment in the south. “We need a total withdrawal of the Israeli army,” Macron said, speaking alongside Lebanon’s new president, Joseph Aoun, who commanded the Lebanese military until parliament elected him as head of…
The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced on Friday it had fined credit reporting bureau Equifax $15 million for failing to sufficiently investigate consumer disputes of its credit reports. The bureau said Equifax ignored consumer documents and evidence submitted alongside disputes, allowed previously flagged inaccuracies to return to credit reports, and relied on flawed software code, leading to inaccurate credit scores. A spokesperson for Equifax did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Under the settlement, Equifax agreed to pay $15 million into the CFPB’s victim relief fund and fix its dispute resolution processes. (Reuters)