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Tag: washington

  • Only three Indian businessman on White House state dinner guest list

    Only three Indian businessman on White House state dinner guest list

    Washington:  Only three Indian businessmen — Mukesh Ambani, Anand Mahindra and Nikhil Kamath — are part of the guest list for the state dinner hosted by US President Joe Biden in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s honour at the White House.

    Deadline reported that the guest list for the White House State Dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi includes a number of entertainment and media figures, including Netflix’s Bela Bajaria, Universal’s Donna Langley, director M. Night Shyamalan, Wasserman Media Group’s Casey Wasserman and James Murdoch.

    Also on the list were OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

    In the news business, guests include columnists Tom Friedman and David Ignatius, The Wall Street Journal’s Tarini Parti, writer Anand Giridharadasas, as well as CBS News’ Neeraj Khemlani. Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is now US Ambassador to India, also attended, Deadline reported.

    Other notables include Billie Jean King, Anne Wojcicki, Ralph Lauren, and Maria Teresa Kumar.

    House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who hosted Modi at a joint session of Congress earlier on Thursday, was also on the list. The President’s son Hunter Biden, who faces tax and gun charges as part of a plea deal announced this week, also is on the list.

    Other CEOs include Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano, GE CEO Larry Culp, Discover CEO Roger Hochschild, Cisco Systems CEO Chuck Robbins and Deloitte CEO Punit Renjen, Deadline reported.

  • Missing tourist submarine might have only 70 hrs of oxygen left, according to reports

    Missing tourist submarine might have only 70 hrs of oxygen left, according to reports

    Washington: A tourist submarine that went missing on June 18 during a dive to the Titanic’s wreckage in the Atlantic with five people on board, has only about 70 hours of oxygen left, with a massive search and rescue operation currently underway, a media report said citing a top US Coast Guard official as saying.

    Addressing the media on Monday, Rear Adm John Mauger of the US Coast Guard said: “We anticipate there is somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours available at this point,” reports the BBC.

    He also said that two aircraft, a submarine and sonar buoys were involved in the search for the vessel but noted the area in which the search is taking place was “remote”, making operations difficult.

    Rear Adm Mauger said the rescue teams were “taking this personally” and were doing everything they could to bring those on board “home safe”.

    The missing vessel is believed to be tour firm Ocean Gate’s Titan submersible, a truck-sized sub that holds five people and usually dives with a four-day emergency supply of oxygen.

    Tickets cost $250,000 for an eight-day trip including dives to the wreck at a depth of 3,800m.

    According to the US Coast Guard, contact with the submarine was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive on June 18.

    In a statement on Monday, OceanGate said its “entire focus (was) on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families”, the BBC reported.

    “We are deeply thankful for the extensive assistance we have received from several government agencies and deep sea companies in our efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible,” it added.

    The Titanic’s wreck lies some 700 km south of St John’s, Newfoundland, though the rescue mission is being run from Boston, Massachusetts.

    Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British billionaire businessman and explorer, is among those on the missing submarine, his family said.

    On social media over the weekend, Harding said he was “proud to finally announce” that he would be aboard the mission to the wreck of the Titanic — but added that because of the “worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023”.

    He later wrote: “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow (June 18).”

  • The snake cut off the electricity of 16,000 houses.

    The snake cut off the electricity of 16,000 houses.

    Washington. In America, a snake cut off the electricity of 16,000 homes. The incident came to light in the US city of Austin when a snake slithered into a substation and came in contact with equipment. The outage started at 1 pm on May 16, affecting around 16,000 customers, according to reports. The incident happened when a snake entered a substation and came in contact with an electrified circuit, causing a power failure.
    At the same time, Austin Energy said in its tweet that interference of wildlife can cause power failure. Today a snake crawled into one of our substations and came in contact with an electrified circuit which stopped the flow of electricity. Power was later restored to all affected customers by 2 p.m. An Austin Energy spokeswoman said the company is now in the process of installing low-voltage electric snake fencing around substations to keep the crawling reptiles out. In a similar incident last year, about 10,000 homes in Japan lost power when a snake fell into an electrical substation.

  • US announces $1.2 bn in new military aid for Ukraine

    US announces $1.2 bn in new military aid for Ukraine

    By AFP

    WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday announced a new $1.2 billion security assistance package for Ukraine to boost the country’s air defences and provide it with additional artillery ammunition.

    The package underscores the continued US commitment to Ukraine “by committing critical near-term capabilities, such as air defence systems and munitions, while also building the capacity of Ukraine’s armed forces to defend its territory and deter Russian aggression over the long term,” the Defense Department said in a statement.

    The assistance comes in the form of Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds, which pay for the procurement of equipment from the defence industry or partners rather than providing equipment from existing US stocks.

    This avoids depleting US inventories but means the assistance will take longer to reach the battlefield.

    The package features unspecified air defence systems and munitions as well as equipment to integrate Western systems with Ukraine’s existing gear, which is mainly of Soviet vintage.

    It also includes ammunition for counter-drone systems, 155 mm artillery rounds, and commercial satellite imagery services.

    The United States has spearheaded the push for international support for Ukraine, quickly forging an international coalition to back Kyiv after Russia invaded in February 2022 and coordinating aid from dozens of countries.

    Kyiv has pushed for some items that its international supporters have been reluctant to provide, including Patriot air defence systems and advanced heavy tanks — which were eventually promised — and others such as Western fighter aircraft, which have not been pledged so far.

  • Ajay Banga of Indian origin will be the next President of the World Bank, will take over the post on June 2

    Ajay Banga of Indian origin will be the next President of the World Bank, will take over the post on June 2

    Washington. Indian-American entrepreneur Ajay Banga was on Wednesday appointed unopposed as the next President of the World Bank. Giving information about Banga’s appointment, the World Bank said in a press release, “The Executive Directors of the World Bank today elected Ajay Banga as President for five years. His five-year term will begin on June 2, 2023.”
    Banga, the former head of Mastercard Inc., currently serves as the vice chairman of General Atlantic. He is the first person of Indian origin to head either of the world’s top financial institutions – the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He was brought up in India only. The Government of India has also honored him with the Padma Shri award in the year 2016.
    Last February, US President Joe Biden had announced the nomination of 63-year-old Banga to head the World Bank. Biden said that Banga is well qualified to lead the global organization at this critical moment in history. The World Bank said the Board of Directors looks forward to working with Banga on the World Bank Group development process. This development process was agreed upon in the meeting held in April. Apart from this, there is also a need to work together on efforts to deal with the difficult development challenges facing the developing countries.

  • US Witnesses Drug Resistant Deadly Fungal Infection That’s Spreading At Alarming Rate: CDC

    US Witnesses Drug Resistant Deadly Fungal Infection That’s Spreading At Alarming Rate: CDC

    The US is witnessing the spread of a deadly drug-resistant and what is being described as a potentially “deadly fungus” that is causing infection among Americans at an alarming rate, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated on Tuesday, according to American broadcasters. The fungus behind the spread is a type of yeast called Candida Auris, or C. Auris, and it can reportedly cause “severe illness” among people who have a weakened immune system. According to CDC, scores of people have been found diagnosed with C. Auris and are now infected. CDC’s findings have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and the warnings come as the Mississippi Department of Health is battling a major outbreak of the fungus across the state.

    The sudden spike in the cases of infection “especially in the most recent years is really concerning to us,” CDC’s study author, Dr Meghan Lyman, a chief medical officer in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, told NBC news. “We’ve seen increases not just in areas of ongoing transmission, but also in new areas,” she added. The fungus infection, which is also resistant to antifungal medication, according to American healthcare experts, has now turned into a “dangerous public healthcare threat.” Doctors in the US are warning that the deadly fungus infection might lead to serious illness as well as fatalities. Those at risk the most are the vulnerable groups that use or have used invasive medical devices in healthcare facilities. As many as 30% to 60% of those infected died from the illness, last year.

    Fungus Candida Auris is found in more than 30 countries but was first reported in the US in 2016. Until 2021, there have been an estimated 3,270 cases of infections on record of a total of 7,413 screenings, the CDC noted. The infection can spread from bodily contact, person to person, as well as from contaminated surfaces due to a lack of hygiene. There aren’t many known control methods that have proven to be effective to fight the disease, according to the CDC findings. The infected patient can be identified via a test of the bodily fluids.