Washington (AFP) - US President Joe Biden faces a critical week Monday that will test his standing at home and abroad, as moves to force him to quit his fight for a second White House term gather pace. The 81-year-old has so far defied calls to step aside, after a disastrous debate against election rival Donald Trump last month threw into stark relief fears that he is too old to serve as president until 2029. Allies have warned he needs to do more to convince his party and the public that, as he insists, only he can beat Trump at the ballot box. "This week is going to be absolutely critical," ...
AFP
New York (AFP) - Boeing on Monday said it had "reached an agreement" with the US Department of Justice over two fatal 737 MAX crashes more than five years ago. "We have reached an agreement in principle on terms of a resolution with the Justice Department, subject to the memorialization and approval of specific terms," Boeing told AFP in a statement. The deal comes after prosecutors concluded the aviation giant flouted an earlier settlement addressing the disasters, in which 346 people were killed in Ethiopia and Indonesia. Sources told AFP last week that Boeing was on a deadline to accept or ...
AFP
Houston (AFP) - Parts of coastal Texas were evacuated over warnings of flooding and power outages as the southern US state braced for the Monday arrival of Beryl, which was threatening to make landfall as a hurricane. The US National Hurricane Center said in its latest update that winds were reaching 70 miles (110 kilometers) per hour as the tropical storm approached and was forecast to regain hurricane status before hitting the Texas coast. "We have to take Beryl very, very seriously. Our worst enemy is complacency," said Houston Mayor John Whitmire, whose city of 2.3 million people is threat...
AFP
Paris (AFP) - Last month was the hottest June on record across the globe, the EU's climate monitor said Monday, capping half a year of wild and destructive weather from floods to heatwaves. Every month since June 2023 has eclipsed its own temperature record in a 13-month streak of unprecedented global heat, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said. "This is more than a statistical oddity and it highlights a large and continuing shift in our climate," said the service director, Carlo Buontempo. "Even if this specific streak of extremes ends at some point, we are bound to see new recor...
AFP
Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) - Hollywood stars aren't the only celebrities who live in the hills around Los Angeles -- Southern California's mountain lions also make their homes there and are sometimes almost as famous. The animal, also known as a puma or a cougar, is the region's apex predator, and spotting them is something of a hobby for locals. A 2013 photograph of the much loved -- but unimaginatively named -- P-22 in front of the Hollywood sign cemented the creature's place in the popular imagination. But the picture also highlighted the difficulties faced by a species whose habitat...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Shady websites calling for a boycott of Qatar, a New York billboard targeting the Gulf state's rulers, and a Vietnamese outfit floating hundreds of slander-ridden Facebook ads -- all elements of a sprawling influence operation vilifying the country as it mediates between Israel and Hamas. The murky operation, which began late last year and spans multiple countries, is the largest ever to target the wealthy emirate, disinformation researchers say, as the nine-month war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group rages on. The campaigns, many using Islamophobic and anti-...
AFP
Santa Fe (United States) (AFP) - Decades before Alec Baldwin and the "Rust" shooting, the dusty acres of Bonanza Creek Ranch helped put New Mexico on the map as a stunning, homespun location to film Westerns. The ranch was the backdrop to classics like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," a place where jaded Hollywood stars would be greeted by long-standing manager Imogene Hughes with a cool glass of homemade lemonade and banana bread. Now, with Baldwin set to go on trial this week for manslaughter over an on-set death at Bonanza Creek that has drawn global headlines, Hughes's daughter is gl...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Western leaders are celebrating 75 years of NATO with an elephant in the room -- will Donald Trump, who could again be the US president within months, blow the alliance up? This week's summit in Washington will look, without saying so explicitly, to "Trump-proof" NATO by expanding the role of the alliance itself -- especially in supporting Ukraine, whose fight against Russia has drawn skepticism from the Republican candidate. US President Joe Biden and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg have both trumpeted the 32-nation bloc as the most successful military alliance in h...
AFP
Harrisburg (United States) (AFP) - Embattled US President Joe Biden hit the campaign trail Sunday seeking to reassure voters he was up for a grueling reelection fight, even as more top Democrats reportedly joined the chorus urging him to quit the race. The 81-year-old remained defiant as he hop-scotched across Pennsylvania -- first to the relative safe ground of a predominantly Black church and a campaign field office, and then to a rally with union workers. As Biden arrived in the state capital Harrisburg, reporters shouted questions including whether the Democratic Party was behind him, to w...
AFP
Los Angeles (United States) (AFP) - Animated comedy "Despicable Me 4" rose to the top of the North American box office on its first weekend in theaters, according to figures from industry watcher Exhibitor Relations published Sunday. The fourth major installment of the Minions universe -- which features Will Ferrell voicing a new villain -- racked up $75 million in ticket sales in the United States and Canada since its Friday release by Universal Pictures. "This is an outstanding opening for the 4th episode of an animation series, ranking only behind Toy Story 4," said box office analyst David...
AFP
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