Author: ALJAZEERA

Justices at the United States Supreme Court have signalled scepticism towards a challenge brought by the video-sharing platform TikTok, as it seeks to overturn a law that would force the app’s sale or ban it by January 19. Friday’s hearing is the latest in a legal saga that has pitted the US government against ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, in a battle over free speech and national security concerns. The law in question was signed in April, declaring that ByteDance would face a deadline to sell its US shares or face a ban. The bill had strong bipartisan support, with lawmakers…

Conservative groups have denounced the programmes and threatened to sue companies over them.Facebook owner Meta Platforms and Amazon are winding down diversity programmes ahead of Republican Donald Trump’s return to the United States presidency, amid growing conservative opposition to such initiatives. Some of the US’s biggest businesses have been scaling back their diversity initiatives, years after pushing for more inclusive policies in the wake of protests that followed the police killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans in 2020. Meta is ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programmes, including those for hiring, training and picking suppliers, it said…

Minutes of the December meeting show a division on decision to cut rates and the 0.25 percent cut was a ‘close call’.United States Federal Reserve officials at their meeting December 17-18 expected to dial back the pace of interest rate cuts this year in the face of persistently elevated inflation and the threat of widespread tariffs and other potential policy changes. Minutes from the meeting, released on Wednesday after the typical three-week lag, also showed clear division among the Fed’s 19 policymakers. Some expressed support for keeping the central bank’s key rate unchanged, the minutes said. And a majority of the…

Taipei, Taiwan – As United States President-elect Donald Trump gears up for a second trade war with China once he takes office on January 20, the rare earth minerals essential to the production of electronics, vehicles and weapons are one resource expected to be caught up in the fray. While rare earths are plentiful across the earth’s surface – despite what their name suggests – China controls about 70 percent of their production and 90 percent of processing, according to estimates by the US Geological Survey and the International Energy Agency. The 17 elements, which include scandium, promethium and yttrium,…

Taipei, Taiwan – Five years ago, Jane Meng travelled from her home in Shanghai to Hong Kong to get herself something special for her birthday. The 31-year-old wealthy owner of an import-export company was not looking for a watch or a designer handbag. Instead, she came for critical illness insurance. “I didn’t have faith in the Chinese healthcare system and insurance market being able to provide the care and insurance that I might need later in life,” Meng, who asked not to be referred to by her real name, told Al Jazeera. “So, I decided to go and open up…

Nippon Steel and US Steel have filed a federal lawsuit in the United States challenging the Biden administration’s decision to block Nippon’s proposed $15bn acquisition of the Pittsburgh company. The companies say the head of the United Steelworkers union and a rival steelmaker worked together to scuttle the buyout. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, alleges US President Joe Biden prejudiced the decision of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) which scrutinises foreign investments for national security risks, and violated the companies’ right to a fair review. In moving to block the transaction on Friday, Biden said US…

The US president hails the passage of the budget legislation after days of uncertainty and negotiations that went down to the wire.United States President Joe Biden has signed into law a bipartisan funding bill that averts a government shutdown, days after Congress was thrown into turmoil after President-elect Donald Trump rejected an initial deal. The White House announced on Saturday that Biden had signed the legislation, which funds the government through mid-March. “This agreement represents a compromise, which means neither side got everything it wanted. But it rejects the accelerated pathway to a tax cut for billionaires that Republicans sought,…

Taipei, Taiwan – As the investigation into the deadly crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 stretches into its third day, aviation experts are raising questions about what role a concrete structure at the end of the runway at South Korea’s Muan International Airport may have played in the accident, among other factors. The Boeing 737-800 slammed into a concrete embankment and burst into flames after being forced to make an emergency landing on Sunday morning, killing 179 of 181 people on board in the deadliest-ever plane crash on South Korean soil. The pilot had reported a bird strike to air…

Odisha, India – Ajay Rout is an Indigenous farmer in a remote village in a southern district of India’s Odisha state. The village is surrounded by forest and hills, with the nearest market 10km (6.2 miles) away. The 34-year-old grows sweetcorn and vegetables on his 0.2 hectares (0.5 acres) for both his family to eat and to sell at the market. Rout said this income is a pittance, so he has taken up growing cannabis, a banned drug, for a better income. He has about 1,000 cannabis plants located deep in the hills, which require a trek of at least two…

As authorities probe passenger jet crash, police conduct ‘search and seizure operation’ at airline’s offices and airport.Police in South Korea have banned Jeju Air chief executive Kim E-bae from leaving the country amid an investigation into the deadliest-ever air disaster on South Korean soil. The move came on Thursday as aviation authorities stepped up their probe into the cause of the deadly crash of Jeju Air Flight 2216 on Sunday, which killed 179 of 181 people on board, with the police issuing a statement saying they planned to “swiftly and rigorously determine the cause and responsibility” for the accident. On Thursday morning,…