U.S.Congress News

2024 was another banner year for a source of electricity that is better for people’s lungs, better for climate change and may be reaching your home now when you turn on the lights or turn up the thermostat — large banks of batteries

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. President Trump dialed up pressure on Ukraine to swiftly accept a U.S.-designed peace plan, hardening his position toward the embattled country and its European backers, who insist U.S. security guarantees are vital to a peace deal.

Venezuela in 2022. Following years of authoritarian rule and withering economic sanctions, President Nicolas Maduro had agreed to work toward a democratic presidential election. The White House, in return, granted him a financial lifeline: a permit for U.S. energy giant Chevron to pump and export Venezuelan oil.

Sarah McBride, a Democrat and current Delaware State Senator, has made history by becoming the first openly transgender person elected to the U.S. Congress. She will represent Delaware's single House seat, winning against Republican candidate John Whalen III.

Donald Trump, one day before meeting Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, called for a quick end to its war with Hamas and a return of the hostages, adding that Israel has to better manage its «public relations». The former president, in an interview with Fox News on Thursday, also criticised those who protested the Israeli prime minister's speech to the U.S. Congress, calling for a one-year jail sentence for desecrating the U.S. flag.

Netanyahu visits Washington this week, under pressure to end the Gaza war both from Israelis who want hostages brought home and from a U.S. administration focusing increasingly on the presidential election. The visit, Netanyahu's first to his most important international ally since returning for a record sixth term as prime minister at the end of 2022, has been overshadowed by President Joe Biden's decision not to seek reelection. A meeting with Biden is tentatively planned for Tuesday if the president has recovered from Covid-19, and Netanyahu is scheduled to address the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

A power company in Puerto Rico has restored electricity to most areas affected by a massive outage that hit the U.S. territory this week

Zelenskiy met heads of state and legislators in Singapore late on Saturday and early on Sunday, seeking security assistance and support for a peace summit after arriving for a surprise visit to the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Kremlin reacted coolly on Tuesday to French President Emmanuel Macron's call for a truce in international conflicts during the Paris Olympics, saying Ukraine might use it as an opportunity to regroup and rearm. Suspending armed conflicts under an «Olympic truce» is a longstanding tradition, and Macron said in an interview on Monday that he would work towards achieving one when Paris hosts the Summer Games from July 26 to Aug. 11. Asked about this, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that both President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military had «noticed that, as a rule, the Kyiv regime uses such ideas, such initiatives to try to regroup, to try to rearm, and so on and so forth».

By Richard Cowan and David Morgan

By Makini Brice and Richard Cowan

President Joe Biden said the measures aim to ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin "pays an even steeper price for his aggression abroad and repression at home." The sanctions targeted Russia's Mir payment system, financial institutions and its military industrial base, sanctions evasion, future energy production and other areas. They also hit prison officials the U.S. says are linked to Navalny's death.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration stood ready to support Ukraine in its war with Russia for “as long as it takes” and would push for Russia to pay damages to Ukraine following the end of the war.

ZURICH (Reuters) — Swiss engineering group ABB (ST:ABB)'s operations in China are being scrutinised by two U.S. Congress committees dedicated to investigating security threats and risks posed by Beijing, documents showed on Friday.

The Technology Advisory Committee of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has taken a significant step in addressing the challenges posed by decentralized finance (DeFi) by voting to submit a report urging the government and industry to prioritize understanding and regulating the sector.

China has intensified a crackdown on online scams operated in border areas of Myanmar

State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday that there was «no sense of fatigue» among NATO allies when it came to helping Ukraine. «We must and we will continue to support Ukraine,» he said after a NATO-Ukraine meeting in Brussels, adding that NATO allies were unanimous on this position and that he was also hearing continued support for Ukraine in both chambers of the U.S. Congress. Kyiv has been concerned that the Israel-Hamas war could divert international attention away from its efforts to defeat Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba urged the West earlier on Wednesday to ramp up arms production. The European Union has delivered about 300,000 of its promised 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine so far, he said. «We need to create a Euro-Atlantic common area of defence industries,» Kuleba said before meeting the NATO foreign ministers, adding this would ensure both Ukraine's security and that of NATO countries themselves. Kyiv has recently engaged in a concerted drive to entice leading global arms manufacturers to set up operations in Ukraine, part of a bid to diversify its reliance on weapons and ammunition given by its allies. «It is important that our solidarity with Ukraine is not only demonstrated in words but also in deeds,» NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, urging allies to do more.

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

By David Lawder

The United States-based Chamber of Digital Commerce has aligned with various digital assets firms, associations, legal experts and legislators in a collective effort to challenge the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) vs. Binance lawsuit.

United States-based crypto advocacy organizations are calling out Senator Elizabeth Warren and other lawmakers for some of the claims made regarding connections between the terrorist group Hamas and financing through cryptocurrency.