WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer confidence plunged sharply in September to a level not seen since 2014, according to a key benchmark published on Tuesday, with U.S. households battered by a high cost of living and economic uncertainty from the Iran war. The Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell by 6.7 points to 81.9 this month, its lowest level since April 2014. The high cost of living in the United States is a major issue as the country heads into key midterm elections in November, where Democrats are seeking to wrest control of Congress from U.S. President Donald Trump's Republican Party. "Consumers' write-in responses regarding factors affecting the economy were mostly pessimistic in September," said Dana Peterson, chief economist at the Conference Board. "References to prices, the high cost of goods and services, and oil and gas prices in particular, rose to new heights, reflecting September's surge in fuel costs." Global oil prices have skyrocketed since Trump and U.S. ally Israel launched the war against Iran in late February, with Tehran's retaliatory action targeting Wash
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday let President Donald Trump’s administration continue swiftly deporting people to countries other than their own for now, while the justices consider whether the policy is legal. The apparent 6-3 order temporarily lifts lower court requirements for migrants to get a chance to object before being sent to countries to which they have no ties. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in December. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson would have kept the lower court order in place. The Trump administration said last week the lower court order forced the cancellation of a deportation flight carrying about 70 people bound for three countries. The conservative majority has sided with the administration before on the core Trump administration policy, allowing deportation flights to temporarily continue last year. The court said it will consider several questions: whether the policy is lawful, whether lower courts had the authority to consider the case and issue a sweeping block, as well as other questions the government deems appr
WASHINGTON/CAIRO — Qatar said on Tuesday it hopes that shuttle diplomacy between Iran and the UScan lead to a breakthrough despite U.S. President Donald Trump's denial of media reports that he was willing to ease sanctions and release frozen funds in exchange for Iranian concessions on its nuclear program. "We are exchanging messages between the parties, and we're working towards establishing a common ground in order to get into a deal that would save all of us from the repercussions of the conflict," Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari told reporters. The U.S. and Iran have failed to find an off-ramp from their war, now in its eighth month. Negotiations appeared to intensify during last week's U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, but have so far not yielded any agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Doha once again has emerged as would-be peacemaker after previously playing a supporting role in producing the June memorandum of understanding that led to a brief ceasefire. U.S. and Iranian officials spoke separately with Qatari mediators on Monday. It was uncl
WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the tech executives gathered at the White House to discuss regulating AI had signed a "morally binding" commitment to build adequate safeguards on the fast-moving technology. "They're going to police themselves," Trump said after the meeting that gathered the top leaders in artificial intelligence, including Nvidia's Jensen Huang, OpenAI's Greg Brockman and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. Trump said the tech bosses had signed a deal that would put on paper their commitment to self-regulate in a morally binding agreement that would not be legally enforceable. But the final document, dubbed the White House Accord, left the door open "to codify these steps into laws or regulations" if it made sense over time. Speaking to reporters outside the Oval Office surrounded by the world's most powerful tech bosses, Trump also confirmed that he would officially rename the technology "super intelligence" instead of artificial intelligence "because it's not artificial." Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg said the accord aims to assure customers that AI technol
As American billionaires gathered at the White House to honor Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan last Thursday, a group of Chinese business leaders spent the evening on the sidelines. They had travelled to the U.S. capital to join the state dinner. But their invitations never arrived. For weeks, their participation was the subject of intense discussion between Washington and Beijing. While it was under consideration until the summit’s final hours, they were ultimately excluded due to poor communication between the two governments, the two sides’ differing views on reciprocity and the White House’s unclear attitude towards Chinese investments in the United States, according to multiple sources. More than 130 high-profile guests attended the dinner, including some of America’s most prominent tycoons. Several were seated at the main table alongside the leaders and first ladies, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su and Apple executive chairman Tim Cook. Of the 134 guests, only 19 were part of the Chinese delegatio
BAGHDAD/WASHINGTON— Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps urged Americans to vote out US President Donald Trump's allies in Congress as US forces were due to withdraw from their remaining bases in neighbouring Iraq on Wednesday in a departure celebrated by Tehran. Meanwhile, Qatar continued to promote its shuttle diplomacy aimed at ending the seven-month-old war between Iran and the United States. Trump once again predicted a swift surrender for Iran. The 26-page letter by the Guards, published on Tuesday, urges Americans to use their political power to remove current leaders from office and reject US support for Israel and military intervention abroad. While the missive was unlikely to sway US voters who may not even see the text published by Iranian media, it identifies issues that US political analysts say are working against Trump and the Republican Party ahead of November 3 congressional elections, when the opposition Democrats could retake control of one or both legislative chambers, potentially impeding Trump's political agenda. "Remove from power the evil, deceitful, and vio
ROME — Pakistan will use “whatever means are available” to defend Saudi Arabia against Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the country’s defense minister said Tuesday, offering one of Islamabad’s clearest indications yet that it could become directly involved in the widening regional conflict. Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declined to say whether Pakistani forces had already participated in airstrikes. He said, however, that Pakistan’s military capabilities would be available to Saudi Arabia under a new mutual defense pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey. “I’m not going into detail, but obviously when I say that we are bound by this arrangement to defend Saudi Arabia, that means whatever means are available at our disposal, they’ll be available to Saudi Arabia also. I think that’s a categoric statement,” Asif told reporters during a visit to Rome when asked whether Pakistan had been involved in airstrikes against Iranian operators in Yemen . His response did not explicitly confirm Pakistani participation in any strikes. He also did not say whether Saudi Arabia, which
Marriages between Korean men and Japanese women are rising, the Tokyo Shimbun reported. The newspaper cited the Korean wave, Japanese women's desire to live in Korea and the financial burden of domestic marriage expenses for Korean men as possible factors. The number of cross-border marriages surged following the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching 1,483 last year, according to Korean government data. This marks the highest annual figure since 2000. MoaLove, a matchmaking agency specializing in Korean-Japanese marriages, said its Japanese female membership doubled this year from a year earlier. The agency said most members became interested in K-pop and Korean dramas before joining and many intend to move to Korea after marriage. The agency said social media has fostered greater acceptance of cross-border couples. It added that translation apps have helped ease language barriers, allowing communication even if the men do not speak Japanese. A 38-year-old Japanese freelance worker dating a Korean man cited her personal experience of receiving daily expressions of affection. "Because they treat me
WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning to announce further cuts to the number of generals and admirals serving in the military in an address set for Wednesday, the Pentagon confirmed. According to Pentagon officials, Hegseth will direct all the military services to double the 10% reduction that he ordered last spring to the roughly 800 flag and general officer positions, making it a 20% total decrease to be completed by Jan. 1, 2027. President Donald Trump or Hegseth already have fired or pushed to retire more than two dozen military leaders since taking office, including the Army's top uniformed officer , Gen. Randy George, in April. They also have fired the only two women serving as four-star officers, as well as a disproportionate number of other senior female officers. Hegseth plans to make the announcement in a speech to troops at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, the second year in a row he will deliver what the Pentagon is calling his “State of the Force” address. Fox News earlier reported the new reductions, which could include any one-star gener
A violent mid-air altercation broke out inside the locked flight deck between the two operating pilots of the Dubai-Tel Aviv flight
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A pilot stabbed another pilot and then apparently tried to crash to aircraft carrying dozens of Israelis on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. Passengers and crew staged a dramatic intervention to subdue the attacker and the plane eventually made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. The FlyDubai flight traveling...
The PM referred to the conversation as "productive" and said both leaders reviewed bilateral cooperation in trade, defence, energy, critical technologies and other areas.
