Author: Adrian Mcdonald

A plane carrying five Americans jailed in Iran for years has landed in the US after a controversial prisoner swap. They touched down in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, just south of Washington DC on Tuesday morning. They earlier flew from Tehran to Doha where they were transferred onto a plane bound for the US. The last piece of the deal fell into place on Monday when $6bn (£4.8bn) in Iranian cash – held in South Korea – was sent to banks in Doha. The released prisoners are dual Iranian-US citizens. Five Iranians have also been released from US custody. Of those…

The oil industry packs a bigger economic punch than any other industry in Alaska, according to study findings presented on Wednesday at an industry conference in Anchorage. The study, by the McKinley Research Group and commissioned by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, found that oil and gas employment, spending, tax revenues and spinoff effects supported 16% of the state’s jobs in 2022. For each direct oil and gas company job, industry activity supported 15 other jobs, and each dollar in oil and gas industry wages supported $4 in other Alaska wages, according to the report, which was presented at the Alaska Oil…

President Joe Biden’s administration has for the first time approved direct US military aid to Taiwan under an assistance program aimed at foreign governments, officials said Wednesday, as worries grow over China. The State Department informed Congress on Tuesday of the $80 million package, which is small compared with recent sales to Taiwan but marks the first assistance to Taipei under the Foreign Military Financing program, which generally involves grants or loans to sovereign countries. For five decades, the United States has officially recognized only Beijing, although Congress, under the Taiwan Relations Act, requires the supply of weapons to the…

Canada’s taxpayers’ ombudsman says he’s going to probe long wait times for CRA services. The federal government has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to improve customer service at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) — but people who regularly deal with the country’s tax collector say it hasn’t had much of an effect, with telephone wait times sometimes clocking in at more than two hours. The union that represents CRA employees said the federal government’s decision to lay off approximately 1,800 employees in May and June has only made the situation at the agency’s call centres worse. There’s been a spike in the…

Self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own is due to go to the polls in January with VP William Lai the frontrunner. Taiwan’s Vice President William Lai has said any Chinese military action in response to his stopovers in the United States as part of a visit to Paraguay would be China’s attempt to interfere in the island’s forthcoming presidential elections. Lai, who will be the ruling party’s candidate in January, made the comments in Paraguay where he attended the inauguration of President Santiago Peña. He travelled to Paraguay, one of Taiwan’s few remaining formal diplomatic allies, via New York and is…

This month the State of Alaska adopted regulations to streamline the regulatory process for communities wanting to provide low-cost and clean energy by nuclear microreactor power generation. The regulations stem from Senate Bill (SB) 177 which Governor Dunleavy signed into law in 2022, updating Alaska Statute (AS) 18.45. Constructing any nuclear facility in Alaska requires both federal and state permits. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the authority over civilian nuclear safety. All aspects pertaining to safety for each application for a nuclear reactor are addressed in the NRC permitting process. The state’s authority over nuclear power generation is limited…

U.S. and Australian foreign affairs and defense officials will meet this week in Brisbane for annual talks. The Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations, or AUSMIN 2023, being held Saturday are expected to discuss the sale of submarines as part of the AUKUS alliance, the conflict in Ukraine, and security in the Pacific. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are due in Brisbane for talks with their Australian counterparts Saturday. Blinken has been to New Zealand and Tonga this week as the U.S. intensifies diplomatic efforts to counter China’s ambitions in the Pacific region. Blinken told reporters Wednesday…

The US has announced it is complying with a Ukrainian request to supply it with controversial cluster munitions. The move has been criticised by human rights groups as the weapon is banned by more than 100 countries. What are cluster munitions? Cluster munitions are a method of dispersing large numbers of tiny bomblets from a rocket, missile or artillery shell that scatters them in mid-flight over a wide area. They are intended to explode on impact but a significant proportion are “duds”, meaning they don’t explode initially – this happens especially if they land on wet or soft ground. They…

The commanders of the Azovstal defenders, who returned to Ukraine on July 8, are going to take part in the hostilities again. This was stated by the commander of the Azov regiment Denis Prokopenko at a meeting with journalists in Lviv, where the military arrived from Turkey together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “I am deeply convinced that the army is teamwork, and from today we will continue the fight together, we will definitely say our word in battle. The most important thing is that the Ukrainian army has seized the strategic initiative on the front line and every day we…

Lawmakers have just three weeks to make progress toward a number of priorities – including a major appropriations lift – before departing for their August recess. Lawmakers return to Washington this week with a lengthy to-do list to work through before their August recess, headlined by an appropriations fight already off to a rocky start. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined the upper chamber’s priorities in a letter to colleagues Sunday, highlighting about a dozen additional policy items that the chamber’s slim Democratic majority is expected to take on – from lowering prescription drug prices to modernizing federal aviation programs and addressing…