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[ad_1] The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on June 27, 2023. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday blocked in full a lower court ruling that would have curbed the Biden administration's ability to communicate with social media companies about contentious content on such issues as Covid-19. The decision in a  short unsigned order  puts on hold a Louisiana-based judge's ruling in July that specific agencies and officials should be barred from meeting with companies to discuss whether certain content should be stifled. The Supreme Court also agreed to immediately take up the government's appeal, meaning it will hear arguments and issue a ruling on the merits in its current term, which runs until the end of June. Three conservative justices noted that they would have denied the application: Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. "At this time in the history of our country, what the court has done, I fear, will be seen by so

[ad_1] KHARTOUM, Sudan - May 6, 2023: Sudanese Army sodliers walk near armoured vehicles stationed on a street in southern Khartoum, amid ongoing fighting against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. AFP via Getty Images One month after fighting between Sudan's two military factions broke out in the capital, Khartoum, internationally-brokered peace talks in Saudi Arabia have yielded no solution. Airstrikes and artillery continued to pound the country's capital and surrounding regions in recent days, and violence has also spread to the long-embattled Darfur region in the west. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Monday that more than 600 people had been killed and over 5,000 injured as a result of the fighting. The real toll is expected to be far higher. Almost a million people have fled their homes, both to locations within Sudan and across the border to neighboring countries . Meanwhile, those who have stayed put often have no access to essentials despite a

[ad_1] G-7 leaders stand together after the family photo. Picture Alliance | Picture Alliance | Getty Images Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in the Japan on Saturday to attend the Group of Seven (G-7) summit, giving him a rare chance to both drum up support from the world's rich democracies and sound out "Global South" leaders with long ties to Russia. The Ukrainian president's attendance at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima, the first city to suffer a nuclear attack, also put in sharp relief western concerns over the nuclear threat posed by Moscow. G-7 members — the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada — are grappling with the immense challenges posed by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and tensions with China, notably over Taiwan and economic security. Worried by the outsized role China now plays in supply chains in everything from semiconductors to critical minerals, the G-7 issued a communique that set out a common strategy tow

[ad_1] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (L) walks with China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang (R) ahead of a meeting at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on June 18, 2023. Leah Millis | Afp | Getty Images U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday met with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang in Beijing on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to cool U.S.-China tensions that have overshadowed geopolitics in recent months. The trip by Blinken makes him the highest-level American official to visit China since Joe Biden became U.S. president and the first U.S. secretary of state to make the trip in nearly five years. Blinken had "candid, substantive, and constructive talks" with Qin, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said in a statement Sunday . He raised concerns as well as "opportunities to explore cooperation," and he emphasized the importance of open communication, according to the statement. "The Secretary made clear that the United States w

[ad_1] European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen looks on during a press conference. John Thys | Afp | Getty Images An increasingly isolated Russia is now dependent on China for both its military and economic ends, the European Commission's president said Tuesday. Ursula von der Leyen said Russia was leaning more heavily on its eastern ally as it fails to achieve its objectives. "Russia is failing on strategic goals," von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum  in Davos, Switzerland. "It is first and foremost a military failure," she said, noting that Ukraine had thus far retained its "freedom and independence" in its almost two-year war with Moscow. "Russia's failure is also economic," she continued, highlighting the impact sanctions have had in isolating the country from trade with Western allies. "Russia is now dependent on China," von der Leyen added. Ukraine, meanwhile, is "closer than ever" to j

[ad_1] Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) (C), chair of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, joins Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) (L) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) for a news conference following a GOP caucus meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill on February 28, 2023 in Washington, DC. Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images A group of lawmakers will travel to California to meet with tech and media executives, including Apple CEO Tim Cook and Disney CEO Bob Iger, to discuss China-related topics, CNBC has confirmed. Nearly a dozen lawmakers representing both parties on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party are set to make the three-day trip, led by Chair Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., a spokesperson for the committee told CNBC. Bloomberg and Axios previously reported details of the trip. The trip highlights how the committee's work could affect the tech and media i

[ad_1] Moscow's combat position in the war in Ukraine will not be impacted by the loss of troops belonging to Russian paramilitary group Wagner, according to a senior Russian defense official. Wagner forces were integral to Moscow's advance in Kyiv before the group staged an attempted insurrection at the end of last month, damaging relations with the Kremlin's top military brass irreconcilably. The failed rebellion propelled Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin into exile in Belarus and the militia group said it has now suspended recruitment as it relocates to the country. Members of Wagner group looks from a military vehicle in Rostov-on-Don late on June 24, 2023.  Roman Romokhov | AFP | Getty Images Elsewhere, a new center for the prosecution of aggression in Ukraine opens on Monday, bolstering the capabilities of the Dutch-based International Criminal Court, which is limited in its mandate to pursue crimes of aggression. The ICC already has open warrants for Russian Pres

[ad_1] The container ship, Safeen Pride, with a destination of 'HODEIDAH (ARMED GUARDS)' seen at sea on January 17, 2024 in Djibouti, Djibouti.  Luke Dray | Getty Images Commanders from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Lebanon's Hezbollah group are on the ground in Yemen helping to direct and oversee Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping, four regional and two Iranian sources told Reuters. Iran — which has armed, trained and funded the Houthis — stepped up its weapons supplies to the militia in the wake of the war in Gaza, which erupted after Iranian-backed militants Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the four regional sources said. Tehran has provided advanced drones, anti-ship cruise missiles, precision-strike ballistic missiles and medium-range missiles to the Houthis, who started targeting commercial vessels in November in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, the sources said. IRGC commanders and advisers are also providing know-how, data and in

[ad_1] Eric Adams, mayor of New York, speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. Eric Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images New York City banned TikTok on government-owned devices Wednesday, pointing to security concerns that have made the app a target of bipartisan scrutiny across the country. Congress already voted to ban TikTok on federal devices last year and several states have taken similar steps. The concern generally stems from TikTok's ownership by China-based tech company ByteDance, since many policymakers fear that structure could make U.S. users' information vulnerable to being accessed by the Chinese government, if forced to hand over information to comply with Chinese law . An NYC City Hall Spokesperson told WNBC in a statement that the ban was a result of the city's Cyber Command's conclusion that TikTok "posed a security threat to the city's technical networks." City agencies h

[ad_1] A United Auto Workers member on a picket line outside the Ford Motor Co. Michigan Assembly plant in Wayne, Michigan, on Sept. 15, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images The Biden administration is no longer sending two key officials to Detroit this week to potentially help broker a deal between striking autoworkers and the Big Three car companies, a White House official told NBC News. President Joe Biden last week said he would dispatch White House senior advisor Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su to support discussions between the companies and the United Auto Workers union. But the White House and the UAW mutually agreed it would be better to speak virtually via Zoom, the official said Tuesday. Sperling and Su could still go to Detroit next week but there are no firm plans for them to do so, the official added. "We'll continue to assess travel timing based on the active state of negotiations," the White House official said. Biden large

[ad_1] Former U.S. President Donald Trump departs for his second civil trial after E. Jean Carroll accused Trump of raping her decades ago, outside a Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., January 26, 2024.  Eduardo Munoz | Reuters A federal jury on Friday said that Donald Trump must pay E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages for defaming her in statements he made as president when the writer said he had raped her in the 1990s. The massive verdict came less than three hours after the nine-member jury began deliberating in U.S. District Court in Manhattan following closing arguments in the trial. Trump was not in court for the verdict's reading at 4:40 p.m. ET. Judge Lewis Kaplan told jurors before their deliberations that they had to accept as facts that Trump "sexually assaulted" Carroll in the mid-1990s and defamed the writer in statements he made as president in 2019. "What remains for you to decide," Kap

[ad_1] U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about lowering health-care costs, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., Aug. 29, 2023. Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is placing a priority on reducing individual health-care costs as he seeks reelection in a country where medical spending accounts for 18.3% of the nation's gross domestic product, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "Boy, we've been fighting Big Pharma for a long time," Biden said Tuesday from the White House. "I promise you I'm gonna have your back and I'll never stop fighting for you on this issue, nor will Kamala." On Tuesday, the White House announced 10 prescription drugs that will be subject to the first-ever Medicare price negotiations, which will go into effect in 2026. The 10 medicines accounted for $50.5 billion, or about 20%, of total Part D prescription drug costs   between June 1, 2022, and May 31,

[ad_1] Next phase of Israeli campaign could be 'something different' from ground incursion: IDF The Israel Defense Forces is advancing its campaign to eliminate the military abilities of Palestinian militant group Hamas, a spokesperson said, but the next step may not be a long-anticipated ground incursion. "We are preparing for the next stages of war. We haven't said what they will be. Everybody's talking about the ground offensive. It might be something different," the IDF's Lt Colonel Richard Hecht told reporters, according to Reuters. Expectations have mounted that Israel will launch a ground offensive into the besieged Gaza Strip, which it has sealed off from its electricity, fuel, food and water supplies. Israeli troops have amassed at the border, with the IDF on Friday last week instructing the residents of Gaza City to evacuate south of the Wadi Gaza wetlands. But there has been no ground offensive as yet amid widespread warnings from human rig