USA

Washington, Oct 15 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has urged the World Bank to avoid a "unidimensional" view of the subsidies provided by the Indian government and asserted that it is important to differentiate between "distortive subsidies" and "targeted support" to the vulnerable households.

Portland, Oct 16 (AP-PTI) President Joe Biden called embattled British Prime Minister Liz Truss' abandoned tax cut plan a "mistake," and said he is worried that other nations' fiscal policies may hurt the US amid "worldwide inflation."

WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (Reuters) - Western countries this week ratcheted up their criticism of China, the world's largest bilateral creditor, as the main obstacle to moving ahead with debt restructuring agreements for the growing number of countries unable to service their debts.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Friday that high inflation, tightening monetary policies, currency pressures and capital outflows were increasing debt burdens in many developing countries, and more progress was urgently needed.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- There is a risk of geopolitical fragmentation, as geopolitics turn into geo-economics with negative impacts, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said Friday.

"Emerging markets and developing countries have stressed that for them, it is paramount that they have the opportunity to drive growth and employment on the basis of a more integrated global economy," Georgieva said at a press conference during the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in response to a question from Xinhua.

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A judge has dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer after attorneys accused her of flirting with one of the defendants.

Judge Thomas Wilson announced Friday that the woman has been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys raised concerns the juror was having too much non-verbal communication with defendant Paul Bellar, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reported.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama is headed to Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin in the closing days of the 2022 campaign to give a boost to Democrats running for governor, senator and on down the ballot.

He goes first to Atlanta, where Stacey Abrams is taking on Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Nov. 8. She lost a close race to him in 2018.

As in 2020, Georgia also may once again decide which party controls the Senate. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock is facing a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker, a football star making his first bid for public office.

ATLANTA (AP) — In 2018, Brian Kemp spent much of his campaign for Georgia governor in Stacey Abrams’ shadow as the Democratic Party star tried to become the nation’s first Black female governor.

In the end, he won narrowly anyway.

Then, halfway through his term, the Republican governor became the target of Donald Trump’s wrath when the defeated president threatened retribution after Kemp certified Democrat Joe Biden’s slate of presidential electors in Georgia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The news that 70 million people will see an 8.7% boost in their Social Security checks next year came just weeks before Election Day, but it is unlikely to give Democrats the edge they are desperately seeking at the polls.

In fact, the promise of bigger payments could call even more attention to the surging prices that have been inflicting pain on households — and the reason behind Thursday’s announcement of the the program’s largest cost-of-living increase in four decades.

SEATTLE (AP) — The shooting deaths of two Connecticut officers and wounding of a third punctuated an especially violent week for police across the U.S. and fit into a grim pattern: Even as more officers left their jobs in the past two years, the number targeted and killed rose.

According to organizations that track violence against police, 56 officers have been killed by gunfire this year — 14% more than this time last year and about 45% ahead of 2020′s pace. The country is on track for the deadliest year since 67 officers were killed in 2016.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court on Friday to shut down the work of an independent arbiter who was appointed last month to review documents seized during an FBI search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

The appeal is the latest salvo in weeks of litigation over the scope of duties of the arbiter, also known as a special master, who was assigned to inspect the records taken in the Aug. 8 search of Mar-a-Lago and weed out any that may be protected by claims of legal privilege.