Author: ALJAZEERA

US president’s remarks come as he is seeking to shore up support in key swing state of Pennsylvania.United States President Joe Biden has opposed the proposed sale of a Pittsburgh-based steel manufacturer to Japan’s largest steel producer, insisting on the need for “strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers”. Biden’s opposition to US Steel’s acquisition by Nippon Steel comes as the Democrat is looking to shore up support among unions and blue-collar workers in the key swing state of Pennsylvania ahead of November’s presidential election. Biden won Pennsylvania by fewer than 100,000 votes in 2020, after former President Donald…

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Marrakesh, Morocco – Like everyone in Marrakesh, 39-year-old Zakaria Lamnichri was surprised when the earthquake hit six months ago. Speaking from his stall in the centre of the city, the easy flow of his conversation interrupted by queries from browsing tourists, he recalls the tremors he experienced as the magnitude 6.9 earthquake ripped through the nearby mountains, claiming the lives of about 3,000 people. “The moment, for those who lived it, was horrifying. My wife and son were away in the mountains. I was here. I was terrified for them. For them, that terror lasted for days,” he said, describing how…

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Tokyo, Japan – For foreigners in Japan, permanent residency has long been a much sought-after assurance of security in a country that has historically shunned mass immigration. But proposals by Tokyo to cancel the permanent residence (PR) status for those who fail to pay their taxes and social insurance contributions are now calling that security into question, stirring unease among some longtime foreign residents. Ben Shearon, a British native who has lived in Japan for almost 24 years, is among those questioning the rationale behind the proposed changes to immigration law. A permanent resident, Shearon retired in 2022 and now…

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The top legislator in the United States Senate, Chuck Schumer, has offered his most strident criticism of Israel since the war in Gaza began, calling for a leadership shake-up in the country. On Thursday, Schumer, a Jewish-American Democrat, took direct aim at Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a speech from the US Senate floor, saying the Israeli leader has been “too willing to tolerate the civilian toll in Gaza”. Schumer pushed Israel to hold elections to replace Netanyahu and said the prime minister had “lost his way” in his pursuit of “political survival”. “There needs to be a fresh…

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The move comes as the Palestinian Authority faces pressure to reform from the US amid Israel’s war on Gaza.Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser Mohammed Mustafa to be the next prime minister in the face of US pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority as part of Washington’s post-war vision for Gaza. Mustafa, a US-educated economist and political independent, now faces the task of forming a new government for the PA, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In a statement announcing the appointment on Thursday, Abbas asked Mustafa to put together plans…

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The space travel company SpaceX has completed its most successful test yet of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket — but as the unmanned rocket completed its flight, it was destroyed upon re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. Thursday’s test flight was the third conducted with Starship rockets, ahead of planned missions with the United States space agency NASA to send astronauts to the moon. SpaceX, a company founded and owned by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, livestreamed the latest Starship experiment, noting that the vessel flew farther and faster than it had in two previous tests. However, as the rocket returned to…

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Amid concerns over user privacy and national security, Mnuchin told US media that TikTok ‘should be owned by US businesses’.Former United States Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has announced plans to rally investors in the hopes of buying the popular video-sharing app TikTok. The announcement comes after the House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that seeks to ban the app unless its China-based parent company ByteDance divests from its US operations, amid national security concerns. The Senate, however, has yet to schedule a vote on the bill. Mnuchin, an investment banker who served under former US President Donald Trump…

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