By William James and Elizabeth Piper LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Boris Johnson has been referred to police over further potential breaches of lockdown rules during the COVID-19 pandemic, a charge the former prime minister’s office portrayed as “yet another politically motivated stitch up”. The Cabinet Office, which is responsible for overseeing the operation of government, said…
By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Justice Department on Tuesday asked an appeals court panel to vacate an April 2021 ruling that had declared unlawful a government order requiring masks on airplanes and other transportation modes during the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the issue was now moot because the national emergency was now over. In January,…
By Patricia Zengerle and Simon Lewis WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday privately viewed a classified cable related to the August 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, as the panel’s Republican chairperson and State Department grapple over providing access to the document. Representatives Michael McCaul, the panel’s…
By Andrew Goudsward (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld an admissions policy aimed at diversifying a highly selective Virginia high school, rejecting arguments that it discriminated against Asian-American students. The Richmond-based 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the Fairfax County School Board did not intend to discriminate against Asian-Americans when…
By Echo Wang and Michael Martina NEW YORK (Reuters) -China’s new ambassador to Washington Xie Feng said on Tuesday that he will seek to enhance China-U.S. cooperation, but that relations face serious challenges. “I have come here to safeguard China’s interest. This is my sacred responsibility,” Xie told reporters after landing at New York City’s John…
By David Morgan, Steve Holland and Richard Cowan WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Representatives of President Joe Biden and congressional Republicans ended another round of debt ceiling talks on Tuesday with no signs of progress as the deadline to raise the government’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit or risk default ticked closer. The two parties remain deeply…
(Reuters) -A Russian court on Tuesday extended for three months the pre-trial detention of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who was arrested in March on espionage charges, which he and his employer deny. The FSB security service arrested Gershkovich, a U.S. citizen, on March 29 in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg accusing him of…
(Reuters) – Vedanta Group, the promoter of metals-to-oil conglomerate Vedanta Ltd, has signed a five-year loan for about $850 million with JPMorgan and Oaktree, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The billionaire Anil Agarwal-led group is relying on money from its units to tackle its debt burden, after its efforts to sell…
By Jennifer Rigby LONDON (Reuters) – A growing number of health emergencies around the world, from COVID-19 to cholera, have left the World Health Organization’s response “overstretched”, a senior advisor said on Tuesday. Speaking at the U.N. agency’s annual meeting, Professor Walid Ammar, chair of a committee reviewing the WHO’s emergency response, said funding and…
By Liz Hampton ARTESIA, New Mexico (Reuters) – Charlie Barrett walks through an oilfield in New Mexico’s southeastern desert, where the air smells of rotten eggs and old pumpjacks sit among shrub oaks, and turns on an infrared camera that can detect emissions from oil and gas equipment. Barrett, who works for environmental group Earthworks,…
