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Baghdad Airport Attack Carried Out With "Booby-Trapped Drone"

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Baghdad Airport Attack Carried Out With 'Booby-Trapped Drone'" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-06/1d5dqf78_missile-generic-rocket-generic_625x300_05_June_19.jpg" title="Baghdad Airport Attack Carried Out With 'Booby-Trapped Drone'" /></div>
Five rockets targetted an airbase in Balad an hour before the airport attack (Representational)
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Baghdad:
A rocket attack on Wednesday evening targeting Baghdad airport, where US soldiers are posted, was carried out with a "booby-trapped drone", a security official told AFP -- a technique increasingly used by pro-Iran groups.
An hour earlier five rockets had targeted an air base to the north where US sub-contractors operate, another security source said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/baghdad-airport-attack-carried-out-with-booby-trapped-drone-2460363">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/baghdad-airport-attack-carried-out-with-booby-trapped-drone-2460363</a>

news world Baghdad Airport Attack Carried Out With "Booby-Trapped Drone"

Five rockets targetted an airbase in Balad an hour before the airport attack (Representational) Baghdad: A rocket attack on Wednesday e...

Biden To Announce Major Covid Vaccine Sharing Plan Ahead Of G7 Summit

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Biden To Announce Major Covid Vaccine Sharing Plan Ahead Of G7 Summit" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-03/4hhkvlsg_joe-biden-afp650_625x300_26_March_21.jpg" title="Biden To Announce Major Covid Vaccine Sharing Plan Ahead Of G7 Summit" /></div>
Biden landed in England for the start of his first foreign trip as US President (File)
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United Kingdom:
President Joe Biden will announce a major new initiative to vaccinate the world against Covid-19 ahead of a G7 summit, showcasing his brand of US leadership before going into a difficult meeting with Russia's Vladimir Putin next week.
Biden landed in England on Wednesday for the start of his first foreign trip as president -- which features the G7 meeting, summits with NATO and the European Union in Brussels, and finally talks with Putin in Geneva.
On the way, Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, told reporters aboard Air Force One that the president would kick things off with news of a major vaccine sharing initiative.
Sullivan would not give full details, but according to US media reports, the Biden administration is set to buy 500 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for international distribution.
Doses will be aimed at developing countries, Sullivan said.
"The president is focused on helping to lead the world because he believes it's the right thing to, it's what Americans do in times of need," he said.
"We were the arsenal of democracy in World War II. We're going to be the arsenal of vaccines."
The Group of Seven will make a further joint declaration on "a comprehensive plan to help end this pandemic as rapidly as possible," Sullivan said.
"Tight" transatlantic ties
The 78-year-old president was headed first to the G7 gathering in a Cornish seaside resort from Friday to Sunday, alongside the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.
From there, in rapid succession, he will visit Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle and fly to Brussels for summits with the NATO military alliance on Monday and the European Union on Tuesday. He will finish in Geneva to meet Putin next Wednesday, holding talks in an elegant villa overlooking Lake Geneva, a US official who asked not to be named told AFP.
With the world still crawling out from under the wreckage of Covid-19, Biden has cast his diplomatic marathon as a return to badly needed US leadership.
Boarding Air Force One outside Washington earlier Wednesday, Biden said his trip would make "clear to Putin and China that Europe and the United States are tight."
Biden's pitch marks a return to traditional US diplomacy after four years during which Donald Trump flirted with autocrats and recast multilateralism as a dirty word.
"Wind at back"
That's a message that the trip's choreography, with Biden meeting a Who's Who of US allies before sitting down with Putin, reinforces.
"He will go into this (Putin) meeting with the wind at his back," Sullivan said.
But European partners, still reeling from Trump shock, may eye Biden's vows with some scepticism.
As Biden departed Washington, the European Union trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, called on the US to "walk the talk" when it comes to resolving lingering Trump-era trade disputes.
And there was friction last month when Washington blocked French attempts at the United Nations to demand a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Biden's ramping up of vaccine donations also follows what critics saw as a long period of hoarding.
Biden's meeting on the sidelines of NATO with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promises to be especially prickly.
Biden has irked Erdogan, who was sometimes a Trump ally, by highlighting Turkey's dire human rights situation and recognising the Ottoman Empire's genocide against the Armenians. Washington risks "losing a precious friend," Erdogan has warned.
"More stable?"
Expectations for the Putin summit are so low that simply making US-Russian relations "more stable" would be considered a success, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other White House officials say.
The White House sees the extension of the New START nuclear arms treaty in February as an example of where business can be done. Biden also needs the Kremlin to make progress with Iran, which is close to Russia.
The list of tensions, however, is far longer.
Biden blames Russia for the massive SolarWinds cyberattack, election interference, and at the very least harbouring criminals behind ransomware attacks against the vital Colonial fuel pipeline and the US subsidiary of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS.
Biden will also press Putin about sabre-rattling on the Ukrainian border, the imprisonment of opponent Alexei Navalny, and his support for Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarussian strongman who forced a Ryanair airliner to land in Minsk, then arrested an opponent on the flight.
It's a long to-do list for the US president on his first foreign trip.
But Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that with decades in the Senate and eight years as vice president under Barack Obama, Biden has done his homework.
"He's been getting ready for 50 years," she said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/joe-biden-to-announce-major-covid-vaccine-sharing-plan-ahead-of-g7-summit-2460355">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/joe-biden-to-announce-major-covid-vaccine-sharing-plan-ahead-of-g7-summit-2460355</a>

news world Biden To Announce Major Covid Vaccine Sharing Plan Ahead Of G7 Summit

Biden landed in England for the start of his first foreign trip as US President (File) United Kingdom: President Joe Biden will announc...

If Covid Trends Continue, It Could Be Years Before Virus Is Controlled: US Health Body

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="If Covid Trends Continue, It Could Be Years Before Virus Is Controlled: US Health Body" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-10/doclen8_coronavirus-generic-october-2020-reuters-650_650x400_06_October_20.jpg" title="If Covid Trends Continue, It Could Be Years Before Virus Is Controlled: US Health Body" /></div>
Infections are higher in many places in the region than at any other point in pandemic: Official
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Bogota:
If the spread of COVID-19 continues at current rates it will be years before the virus is controlled in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday, as it called for countries to share excess vaccine doses.
There were almost 1.2 million new cases and 34,000 deaths in the region last week, and four of the five countries with the highest death counts worldwide are in the Americas, PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said during the organization's weekly news conference.
"If current trends continue, the health, social and economic disparities in our region will grow even larger, and it will be years before we control this virus in the Americas," Etienne said.
Infections are higher in many places in the region than at any other point during the pandemic, she said, and the emergence of new more easily transmitted variants has added new complexities to epidemiological surveillance.
Just 10% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean have been fully vaccinated, with a particularly acute situation in Central American and the Caribbean.
PAHO is thankful to the United States, Spain and Canada for promises to donate millions of doses or funding, but more needs to be done, the director said.
"We hope other countries - particularly those with excess doses - and global financial institutions will follow in their footsteps to provide the support we need," Etienne said. "Vaccine donations are essential in the short-term."
Ahead of the kick-off of the Copa America soccer tournament in Brazil on Sunday, Ciro Ugarte, PAHO's Director of Health Emergencies, said countries hosting mass events should consider postponing if COVID-19 risks cannot be controlled.
Venezuela still owes $10 million in funding for vaccines via the COVAX vaccine sharing program, Ugarte said.
COVAX supply for Venezuela will likely not be ready soon because of global demand, but PAHO hopes Venezuela and other regional countries will be given priority because they have not yet received COVAX doses.
Hospitalizations in Haiti are stretching oxygen supplies there, Etienne said.
Haiti, one of only a handful of countries which has yet to administer a single dose of coronavirus vaccine, is grappling with its first major outbreak.
Bolivia and Colombia are seeing a rise in cases and deaths and intensive care unit beds are near capacity in many Colombian cities, Etienne added.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pan-american-health-organization-if-covid-trends-continue-it-could-be-years-before-virus-is-controlled-2460354">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pan-american-health-organization-if-covid-trends-continue-it-could-be-years-before-virus-is-controlled-2460354</a>

news world If Covid Trends Continue, It Could Be Years Before Virus Is Controlled: US Health Body

Infections are higher in many places in the region than at any other point in pandemic: Official Bogota: If the spread of COVID-19 cont...

"The United States Is Back": Biden On First Day Of Europe Tour

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'The United States Is Back': Biden On First Day Of Europe Tour" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-04/8f5gga1k_joe-biden_625x300_29_April_21.jpg" title="'The United States Is Back': Biden On First Day Of Europe Tour" /></div>
Biden hopes to leave behind the rancour and isolation of the Trump era
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United Kingdom:
Joe Biden on Wednesday declared triumphantly that "The United States is back!", as he kicked off his first overseas tour as president, hoping to leave behind the rancour and isolation of the Trump era.
Biden ran through a packed itinerary that takes in a G7 leaders' meeting and a NATO summit before ending with a face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.
With Putin, he told US service personnel at Royal Air Force base Mildenhall in eastern England, he will "let him know what I want him to know".
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/the-united-states-is-back-biden-on-first-day-of-europe-tour-2460353">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/the-united-states-is-back-biden-on-first-day-of-europe-tour-2460353</a>

news world "The United States Is Back": Biden On First Day Of Europe Tour

Biden hopes to leave behind the rancour and isolation of the Trump era United Kingdom: Joe Biden on Wednesday declared triumphantly tha...

Five Rockets Target Iraq Airbase Housing US Contractors: Report

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Five Rockets Target Iraq Airbase Housing US Contractors: Report" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-06/1d5dqf78_missile-generic-rocket-generic_625x300_05_June_19.jpg" title="Five Rockets Target Iraq Airbase Housing US Contractors: Report" /></div>
No damage has been reported in the attack (Representational)
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Samarra, Iraq:
Five rockets Wednesday evening targeted Iraq's Balad airbase, with two of the projectiles falling near an area used by US contractors without causing casualties, a security official told AFP.
"There were no victims or damage," the official said.
Balad airbase, north of Baghdad, is used by US company Sallyport to service F-16 fighter jets flown by Iraq's air force and has repeatedly been targeted by rocket fire.
Another US company, Lockheed Martin, withdrew its staff from the base last month amid concerns about the safety of its personnel.
At least three foreign subcontractors and one Iraqi subcontractor have been wounded in attacks on Balad.
The US routinely blames such attacks -- which also regularly target US interests at other installations, including Baghdad airport -- on Iran-backed factions.
US troops are in Iraq as part of a military coalition that was established to fight the jihadist Islamic State group -- a campaign that Iraq's government declared won in late 2017.
The rocket attacks are seen as a means to pressure Washington into removing all its remaining personnel, whom Iran-linked factions view as an occupying force.
In mid-April, pro-Iran fighters sent an explosives-packed drone crashing into Arbil airport in the first reported use of such a weapon against a base housing US troops in Iraq.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/five-rockets-target-iraqs-balad-airbase-housing-us-contractors-report-2460345">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/five-rockets-target-iraqs-balad-airbase-housing-us-contractors-report-2460345</a>

news world Five Rockets Target Iraq Airbase Housing US Contractors: Report

No damage has been reported in the attack (Representational) Samarra, Iraq: Five rockets Wednesday evening targeted Iraq's Balad ai...

US Senate Passes Sweeping Bill To Address China Tech Threat

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="US Senate Passes Sweeping Bill To Address China Tech Threat" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2019-12/d9saa0ag_us-china-flag-reuters_625x300_30_December_19.jpg" title="US Senate Passes Sweeping Bill To Address China Tech Threat" /></div>
China responded to the vote by saying it objected to being cast as an "imaginary" U.S. enemy. (File)
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Washington:
The U.S. Senate voted 68-32 on Tuesday to approve a sweeping package of legislation intended to boost the country's ability to compete with Chinese technology.
An indignant China responded to the vote by saying it objected to being cast as an "imaginary" U.S. enemy.
The desire for a hard line in dealings with China is one of the few bipartisan sentiments in the deeply divided U.S. Congress, which is narrowly controlled by President Joe Biden's fellow Democrats.
The measure authorizes about $190 billion for provisions to strengthen U.S. technology and research - and would separately approve spending $54 billion to increase U.S. production and research into semiconductors and telecommunications equipment, including $2 billion dedicated to chips used by automakers that have seen massive shortages and made significant production cuts.
China's parliament expressed "strong indignation and resolute opposition" to the bill. It said in a statement that the U.S. bill showed "paranoid delusion of wanting to be the only winner" and had distorted the original spirit of innovation and competition.
"We firmly object to the United States seeing China as an imaginary enemy," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters in Beijing.
The bill must pass the House of Representatives to be sent to the White House for Biden to sign into law. It is not clear what legislation in the House will look like or when it might take it up.
The bill has a number of other China-related provisions including prohibiting the social media app TikTok from being downloaded on government devices, and would block the purchase of drones manufactured and sold by companies backed by the Chinese government. It would also allow diplomats and Taiwanese military to display their flag and wear their uniforms while in the United States on official businesses.
It would also create broad new mandatory sanctions on Chinese entities engaged in U.S. cyberattacks or theft of U.S. intellectual property from U.S. firms, and provides for a review of export controls on items that could be used to support human rights abuses.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a co-sponsor of the measure, warned of the dire consequences of not funding research to keep up with China.
"If we do nothing, our days as the dominant superpower may be ending. We don't mean to let those days end on our watch. We don't mean to see America become a middling nation in this century," Schumer said.
Biden praised the bill: "We are in a competition to win the 21st century, and the starting gun has gone off ... We cannot risk falling behind."
U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has said the funding could result in seven to 10 new U.S. semiconductor plants.
Many U.S. companies praised the bill. General Motors Co said the legislation "represents an important step to address the semiconductor shortage that continues to impact U.S. automotive manufacturing."
Some critics have likened the Senate funding effort to China's high-tech industrial development push, dubbed "Made in China 2025," which long irked the United States.
The bill also seeks to counter Beijing's growing global influence through diplomacy, by working with allies and increasing U.S. involvement in international organizations after Republican former President Donald Trump's "America First" agenda.
Senator Maria Cantwell noted the bill would authorize NASA spending and its Artemis mission to the Moon.
"As China has made it clear, they're going to Mars, we are going back to the Moon to ready ourselves to go to Mars," Cantwell said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-senate-passes-sweeping-bill-to-address-china-tech-threat-2459862">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-senate-passes-sweeping-bill-to-address-china-tech-threat-2459862</a>

news world US Senate Passes Sweeping Bill To Address China Tech Threat

China responded to the vote by saying it objected to being cast as an "imaginary" U.S. enemy. (File) Washington: The U.S. Sen...