WASHINGTON: Japan has canceled a regular high-level meeting with its key ally the United States after the Trump administration demanded it spend more on defense, the Financial Times reported on Friday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been expected to meet Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani…
JAKARTA: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on Friday reaffirmed his country’s non-aligned foreign policy and praised its swift entry into the BRICS bloc, while setting out an ambitious economic strategy aimed at food security and inclusive growth. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), he thanked Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil for supporting…
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was wrong in suggesting there was no evidence Iran is building a nuclear weapon. Trump contested intelligence assessments relayed earlier this year by his spy chief that Tehran was not building a nuclear weapon when he spoke with reporters at an…
LOS ANGELES: After night fell on the outskirts of Los Angeles on Thursday, around 50 people clanged metal pots and blasted air horns outside a hotel in a noisy bedtime protest targeting US immigration agents. The “No Sleep For ICE” rally underscored growing anger at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a once obscure agency that…
ISTANBUL: Iran’s Cyber Security Command announced that since the onset of Israeli cyberattacks amid the conflict, multiple attempts to disrupt critical infrastructure, including the banking network, have been largely thwarted, Anadolu Ajansi (AA) reported, citing Iranian Mehr News Agency on Friday. Key achievements highlighted, according to a statement by the Command, include repelling major distributed…
NEW YORK: Tesla announced Friday that it signed an agreement to build its first grid-scale energy storage power station project in mainland China. The project will help with the flexible adjustment of grid resources, and “effectively solve pressures relating to urban power supply,“ Tesla said in a post to the Chinese social media platform Weibo….
LOS ANGELES: US Vice President JD Vance said Friday that the thousands of troops deployed to Los Angeles this month were still needed despite a week of relative calm in the protest-hit city. President Donald Trump has sent roughly 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines, purportedly to protect federal property and personnel, after demonstrations…
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump escalated his criticism of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday — publicly mulling whether to fire the official and appoint himself to the central bank. The Republican leader, who regularly berates Powell over the bank’s decisions not to lower interest rates, took to Truth Social to smear the banker…
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump took credit Friday for a peace deal negotiated in Washington between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda — and complained that he would not get a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. The warring African nations said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they had initialed an agreement…
NEW YORK: Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student who was one of the most visible leaders of nationwide pro-Palestinian campus protests, was released Friday from a federal detention center. Khalil, a legal permanent resident in the United States who is married to a US citizen and has a US-born son, has been in custody…
