Author: Curtis Harrera

This is part 4 of a 4-part special report on the trilateral agreement known as AUKUS — Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.Much of the focus of the Australia-United Kingdom-United States partnership, or AUKUS, is on nuclear-powered submarines. However, the agreement’s other lines of effort to produce joint advanced military capabilities could prove just as significant. In particular, the effort to develop and integrate quantum technologies could give the three countries a major capability for the future, particularly in a potential Indo-Pacific conflict, experts said. Within the partnership, the three countries have formed the AUKUS Quantum Arrangement, which…

Republicans blasted Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday for downplaying the impact that the takedown of the Chinese spy balloon over U.S. airspace will have on diplomatic relations between the two countries.  In an interview with Politico, Ms. Harris said she didn’t think the episode would impact relations between Washington and Beijing, apparently overlooking the fact that Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a scheduled trip to China over the controversy. The National Republican Congressional Committee is demanding the vice president be barred from leading the U.S. envoy to the Munich Security Conference this week after asserting Washington could maintain…

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Friday he had not been aware that classified documents were at his Indiana home and said he takes “full responsibility” for the security breach. Pence, speaking at Florida International University in Miami, said a review was conducted of his personal records after classified documents were found at President Joe Biden’s home in Delaware. “Along the way we determined that there was a small number of documents marked classified or sensitive interspersed in my personal papers,” he said. Pence said he was not aware the documents were there. Also Read | Classified documents found…

(Reuters) -Microsoft Corp plans to cut thousands of jobs with some roles expected to be eliminated in human resources and engineering divisions, according to media reports on Tuesday. The expected layoffs would be the latest in the U.S. technology sector, where companies including Amazon.com Inc and Meta Platforms Inc have announced retrenchment exercises in response to slowing demand and a worsening global economic outlook. Microsoft’s move could indicate that the tech sector may continue to shed jobs. “From a big picture perspective, another pending round of layoffs at Microsoft suggests the environment is not improving, and likely continues to worsen,”…

Kenes Rakishev, former special envoy of the Kazakh government and current chairman of Fincraft Resources signed a memorandum of understanding, as well as a shareholder agreement with the Indian holding Monnet Group on the establishment of a joint venture in Kazakhstan for the production of ferroalloys. The company was named TB Alloys Kazakh Limited.The new plant is planned to be located in the industrial zone of the Taraz city. The company has already started pre-project work. At the first stage, the planned capacity of the enterprise will be up to 50 thousand tons of ferrosilicon per year with a gradual…

United States: Speaking about the looming extreme weather conditions in the Oval Office after a briefing from federal officials, US President Joe Biden said, “This is not like a snow day when you were a kid, this is serious stuff.” United States braces for one of the harshest Christmas on record after temperatures dropped more than 50°F in some areas on Thursday with weather forecasters warned of an impending ‘bomb cyclone’ that threatened to upend travel plans for millions of Americans. The bomb cyclone is predicted to make conditions even worse before Christmas. Weather service meteorologist Ashton Robinson Cook said…

North Korea has delivered arms to Russia’s private military group Wagner, the White House said Thursday (Dec 22), calling the group a “rival” for power to the defence and other ministries in the Kremlin. The US will boost sanctions on the Wagner group following North Korea’s sale to the group of infantry rockets and missiles last month, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, said White House national security spokesman John Kirby. “Wagner is searching around the world for arms suppliers to support its military operations in Ukraine,” Kirby told reporters. “We can confirm that North Korea has completed an…