President Joe Biden urged his negotiators to keep pursuing a debt-limit deal after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy indicated

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte quit the party under which she won as she denounced “political powerplay,” indicating

Singapore’s rental growth is expected to moderate for the rest of this year on more supply and macroeconomic

The University of Southern California’s rules about student athletes’ media interviews and social media posts violated federal labor

Fourteen countries in US-led Indo-Pacific trade talks are nearing an agreement on supply chain coordination and may announce

A group of TikTok creators and viewers sued Montana to challenge the first statewide ban of the popular

Embattled lawmaker George Santos has been accused of allegedly defrauding fellow Republican candidates running for office, a report says. Mr Santos, a Republican first-term congressman from New York has been accused of a string of lies and falsehoods about numerous parts of his background. He was indicted in federal court last week for, among other things, having an associate tell a donor that a contribution to a firm Mr Santos owned would go to support his campaign. Much of the money allegedly went to Mr Santos’s personal accounts instead. But deep-pocketed donors are reportedly not the only people Mr Santos allegedly conned into donating to his firm. According to The Daily Beast, Mr Santos also allegedly took money from his fellow Republican candidates. The firm in question, identified only as “Company #1” in the indictment, is believed to be Redstone Strategies — a limited liability company founded in Florida in 2021 that listed Mr Santos’ Devolder Organization as one of its managers. Mr Santos has denied that Redstone Strategies is the company in question in the indictment but said he was unsure what that company could be. Other people seem to recall more details. Redstone reportedly served as a vendor for multiple New York Republican candidates during the 2022 election cycle and was given a substantial amount of money by Rise NY PAC, a political action committee run by Mr Santos’s sister. “George didn’t only lie to his voters, but also to fellow candidates around him for his own alleged financial gain,” Stefano Forte, a Queens Republican who ran unsuccessfully for the New York state Senate last year, told The Daily Beast. Mr Forte told the publication that Mr Santos approached him personally and pitched him on hiring Redstone, which he did — parting ways with the firm only after he’d paid it $14,000. Mr Forte said he never knew that Mr Santos had a stake in the company, meaning Mr Santos did not disclose that information when he pitched him on hiring the firm. Mr Santos confirmed to The Daily Beast that he had pitched fellow candidates on hiring Redstone, but said he never personally profited from the resulting transactions and dismissed Mr Forte’s criticism as a political attack. Mr Santos is facing a bevvy of legal issues that have made his position in Congress tenuous. Following his indictment, House Democrats introduced a resolution to have him expelled from the chamber. The House voted along party lines on Thursday to refer the resolution to the House Ethics Committee, with Mr Santos himself voting against his explosion. Read More Effort to expel Santos falters as Republicans vote to send measure to Ethics Committee Aide to embattled Republican George Santos resigns: ‘You never took one point of professional advice’ Republicans will regret taking the easy way out on George Santos Jamaal Bowman: Marjorie Taylor Greene used racial ‘bullhorn’ after Capitol exchange George Santos bizarrely compares himself to a Mean Girls character Aide to embattled Republican George Santos resigns

Oil headed for its first weekly advance in more than a month on optimism that the US will

The office of US Senator Dianne Feinstein has confirmed that the California Democrat was suffering worse health complications from a recent shingles case than she had previously claimed. A spokesperson for Sen Feinstein, 89, told CNN Ms Feinstein, the Senate’s oldest lawmaker, experienced Ramsay Hunt syndrome and encephalitis as part of the diagnosis. “While the encephalitis resolved itself shortly after she was released from the hospital in March, she continues to have complications from Ramsay Hunt syndrome,” the spokesperson said on Thursday. Ramsay Hunt syndrome can occur when a case of shingles affects the facial nerve close to the eye, sometimes causing facial paralysis and hearing loss, according to the Mayo Clinic. Earlier in the day, Sen Feinstein claimed to CNN she didn’t have encephalitis, saying, “It was really a bad flu.” The California senator’s health and mental fitness have long been subjects of scrutiny. Some of her colleagues have called on her to resign. She returned to the Senate last week after being absent for 10 weeks as she recovered from shingles. Upon returning to the Senate, Sen Feinstein told reporters that she had never left. “No, I haven’t been gone,” she said to LA Times’s Ben Oreskes when asked how her Senate colleagues have responded to her return, reported Slate. Mr Oreskes then asked her whether she had been working from home. “No, I’ve been here. I’ve been voting,” she said. “Please, you either know or don’t know.” The absence of Sen Feinstein halted the work of the Senate judiciary committee, where Republicans demanded the California Democrat either return to work or resign from the Senate, rather than allow a temporary replacement. The infighting halted the confirmation of federal judges, one of the main ways Democrats can cement their influence in a divided Congress. As The Independent has reported, Sen Feinstein is part of a generation of elderly leaders at the top of the US political system, leading critics to argue more should be done to make elected office accessible to young people. The present Congress contains the second-oldest Senate and third-oldest House in US history. Generationally, the US population fits roughly into four, equal-sized blocks of about 20 to 25 per cent: ages 0 to 18, 19 to 34, 35 to 54, and 55-plus. The composition of Congress, meanwhile, is drastically tipped toward the elder part of that range, with the median House member aged 57.9 and the median senator aged 65.3. According to Professor Munger, Kevin Munger, assistant professor of political science and social data analytics at Pennsylvania State University, author of Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture, the age of America’s most senior politicians – Sen Chuck Schumer is 71, Sen Mitch McConnell is 81 – often means that issues that matter to other generations don’t get top billing, leading both to disaffection and to bigger-picture existential issues, like a lack of serious climate legislation or the impending funding crisis of social security. “It’s been clear that because of the size of the boomer generation, at a certain point, we were either going to have to raise taxes on the workforce or cut the benefits,” he said. “We didn’t do either of those things. Sometime in the 2030s, it’s going to run out. They’re not going to cut benefits to boomers. Instead, younger generations are going to have to fully fund this obvious 30-year shortfall.” In the case of social security in particular, many of the leaders deciding on the issue are current recipients, while those younger generations who will likely pay more or get less in the future aren’t represented in office. A similar problem arises with climate change: the leaders holding up urgent action on the climate likely will not be alive to see the very worst impacts of their inaction. “The issues that matter to younger generations don’t get on the agenda at all,” Prof Munger added. Read More Dianne Feinstein’s decline is heartbreaking and difficult to discuss — but we can’t avoid it Democrats have behaved shamefully around Dianne Feinstein and Republicans are taking advantage The danger of America’s ageing politicians Diane Feinstein denies she was ever absent from US Senate California lawmakers block bill allowing people to sue oil companies over health problems Feinstein's office details previously unknown complications from shingles illness

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer are making plans for votes in the coming

The US and Taiwan agreed to boost trade ties, the first tangible results under an initiative announced last

A man accused of being a Bosnian war criminal who faked his way into the US was arrested in Boston, according to court records. Kemal Mrndzic, who authorities took into custody on Wednesday, allegedly oversaw a prison camp in Bosnia & Herzegovina where prisoners were murdered, raped, and tortured in the 1990s. Federal prosecutors allege that Mr Mrndzic, 50, lied about being a refugee and claimed he had US citizenship, according to Boston.com. They claim he worked as a supervisor at the ÄŒelebići prison camp in the country during the Bosnian War. Survivors accused him of being involved in the war crimes committed against prisoners at the camp. He has been charged with falsifying, concealing, and covering up a material fact from the US government by trick, scheme, or device, for using a fraudulently obtained US passport, and for possessing and using a fraudulently obtained naturalisation certificate and fraudulently obtained Social Security card. Three former guards who allegedly worked with Mr Mrndzic have already been convicted by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Prosecutors said he was interviewed by the UN's tribunal after the Bosnian War and was then accused of participating in the war crimes carried out in the camp. Mr Mrndzic allegedly fled the region to Croatia, where prosecutors say he took on a fake identity and presented himself as a refugee to gain entry to the US. He gained access in 1999 and was later granted citizenship, according to Radio Free Europe. Prosecutors said Mr Mrndzic claimed he had been taken prisoner by Serb fighters and was afraid they would seek revenge on him if he was not granted refugee status. “It is alleged that in his refugee application and interview, he falsely claimed that he fled his home after he was captured, interrogated and abused by Serb forces, and could not return home for fear of future persecution,” the Department of Justice said in a statement. “He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 1999, and ultimately became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009.” Mr Mrndzic made his first court appearance on Wednesday morning and was released on a $30,000 bond. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the fraudulent passport and naturalisation charges — 10 years each — and up to five years in prison for the remaining charges, with three years of supervised release afterwards as well as a $250,000 fine. Approximately 240 ethnic Serbs were imprisoned at ÄŒelebići as part of the systemic ethnic cleansing of Serbian civilians by Bosnian Muslim and Croat forces. Read More Death row inmate challenges new Tennessee post-conviction law Remains of Georgia woman killed 46 years ago identified, confirmed serial killer victim Man accused in baseball bat attack of Connolly congressional staffers now facing federal charges