USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed a $280 billion bipartisan bill to boost domestic high-tech manufacturing, part of his administration’s push to boost U.S. competitiveness over China.

Flanked by scores of lawmakers, union officials, local politicians and business leaders, Biden feted the legislation, a core part of his economic agenda that will incentivize investments in the American semiconductor industry in an effort to ease U.S. reliance on overseas supply chains for critical, cutting-edge goods.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, people familiar with the matter said, a dramatic and unprecedented escalation of law enforcement scrutiny of the former president.

NEW YORK, Aug 08 (APP): Braving torrential rain, Kashmiri-Americans and their supporters Sunday staged a huge rally in New York’s iconic Times Square to denounce India’s “illegal” measures of 5 August 2019 that revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, as they also called for the United Nations to honour its pledge to grant the Kashmiris their right of self-determination.

Raising vociferous anti-India slogans and waving placards, a large number of people turned up to mark Youm-e-Istehsal – the third anniversary of the Indian siege of occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

HOUSTON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Oil prices rose 1.5% on Monday, hovering near their lowest levels in months in volatile trading as positive economic data from China and the United States fed hopes for demand despite nagging fears of a recession.

Brent crude futures were up $1.44, or 1.5%, at $96.35 a barrel by 12:35 p.m. ET (1635 GMT). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was at $96.33 a barrel, up $1.38, or 1.5%.

WASHINGTON, Aug 8 (Reuters) - China's move to suspend cooperation with the United States to combat narcotics trafficking, including illicit fentanyl, is "unacceptable," the White House said on Monday, as Beijing continued to protest a visit to Taiwan by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

China announced fresh military drills on Monday around Taiwan - a day after the scheduled end of its largest ever exercises in response to the highest-level U.S. visit to the Chinese-claimed island in 25 years. 

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Senate on Sunday approved the Democratic spending bill on tax policy, health care and climate change, which is scaled down from what President Joe Biden and many Democrats envisioned last year.

The so-called Inflation Reduction Act cleared the evenly-divided upper chamber by a vote of 51 to 50 along party lines, with Vice President Kamala Harris presiding to break the tie.

No Republicans support the bill, but Democrats have been eager to push through their domestic policy ambitions before the mid-term elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration announced another $1 billion in new military aid for Ukraine on Monday, pledging what will be the biggest yet delivery of rockets, ammunition and other arms straight from Department of Defense stocks for Ukrainian forces.

The U.S. pledge of a massive new shipment of arms comes as analysts warned that Russia was moving troops and equipment in the direction of the southern port cities to stave off a Ukrainian counteroffensive.

(AP) --- Two men accused of crafting a plan to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 and ignite a national rebellion are facing a second trial this week, months after a jury couldn’t reach a verdict on the pair while acquitting two others.

The result in April was a blow to federal prosecutors, who had set out to show that extremists were committed to snatching Whitmer and causing chaos close to the election between Joe Biden and then-President Donald Trump.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Attorney General’s office is asking that a special prosecutor investigate whether the Republican candidate for state attorney general and others should be charged in connection with an effort to gain access to voting machines after the 2020 election, according to published reports.

(AP) --- Climate hazards such as flooding, heat waves and drought have worsened more than half of the hundreds of known infectious diseases in people, including malaria, hantavirus, cholera and anthrax, a study says.

Researchers looked through the medical literature of established cases of illnesses and found that 218 out of the known 375 human infectious diseases, or 58%, seemed to be made worse by one of 10 types of extreme weather connected to climate change, according to a study in Monday’s journal Nature Climate Change.