Author: Jeffrey Gill

The president of the Oscars has told a star-studded audience that the Academy’s response after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock was “inadequate”. Speaking at the nominees luncheon in Los Angeles, Janet Yang said in future the Academy “must act swiftly, compassionately and decisively”. Smith hit Rock on stage at last year’s Academy Awards show after Rock made a joke about Smith’s wife. Minutes later, he tearfully accepted an award for Best Actor in King Richard. The Academy was criticised for allowing the show to continue with Will Smith’s participation in the wake of the assault. “What happened on stage was…

Two back-to-back strong winter storms are expected to bring heavy snow, rain and powerful winds to several parts of the US this week, meteorologists say. The severe weather advisories are partly due to record-high, early spring temperatures in the north-east of the country. Parts of northern Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado are already under a winter storm warning. The storms are projected to move west to east between Monday and Thursday. The first storm began rapidly brewing on Monday over the central parts of the US, the National Weather Service (NWS) said, and will bring with it snow and…

The US believes that unidentified objects shot down over North American airspace on Friday and Saturday were balloons, according to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Washington has been on high alert since its military destroyed a suspected Chinese spy balloon last weekend. While he didn’t say specifically that the latest objects were Chinese, Mr Schumer told ABC on Sunday that Beijing was likely using a “crew of balloons” that had “probably been all over the world”. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed that the latest object was shot down on Saturday over the Yukon in north-west Canada. Both Canadian and…

It’s perhaps not surprising that Tajikistan, which shares a poorly guarded, 750-mile border with opium-rich Afghanistan, has become a major global drug-trafficking hub—in fact, more than 80 percent of Afghanistan’s heroin exports to Russia and Europe now pass through Tajik territory. Over the past decade, the United States, worried that the drug trade would soon be accompanied by all the other security problems that plague Afghanistan, has cooperated closely with Tajikistan’s government to help it stem the narcotics trade. Seems reasonable, right? Unfortunately, that government is such a dubious partner that hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid have done…

The United States have outclassed the Football Ferns again, belting the Women’s World Cup co-hosts 5-0 to wrap-up their two-match tour of New Zealand and familiarise themselves with local conditions ahead of the World Cup in July. Rose Lavelle wore the captain’s armband and netted twice in another impressive performance, with Ashley Hatch, Mallory Swanson and Taylor Kornieck joining her on the scoresheet. The US dominance was so strong that New Zealand failed to have a single shot on goal in the entire game compared to 22 shots for the visitors. Despite playing football at Eden Park for the first…

Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for California on Saturday, after storms that pounded the Golden State since Dec. 26 killed at least 19 people and brought floods, power outages, mudslides, evacuations and road closures. Biden ordered federal aid to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by the storms, the White House said in a statement. Jan 14 (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for California on Saturday, after storms that pounded the Golden State since Dec. 26 killed at least 19 people and brought…

A US carrier strike group began operating in the South China Sea on Thursday, the Navy announced, amid heightened tensions with Beijing, which claims much of the body of water as its sovereign territory.  Two Chinese ships are already tailing the US group, a defense official told CNN, which consists of an aircraft carrier, a guided missile cruiser, and three guided missile destroyers. The Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, which has lethal and non-lethal capabilities from “space to undersea, across every axis, and every domain,” according to its commander, entered the South China Sea for the first time as part of its current…