Biden unveils US$7.3 trillion budget as campaign pitch for spending, tax goals
President Joe Biden sketched his policy vision for the United States on Monday, unveiling a US$7.3 trillion (S$9.71 trillion) spending wish list that is as much an election-year pitch to voters as a policy proposal.
Biden wants to sharply raise taxes on corporations and high earners in his second four-year term, the document showed, to help cut the federal deficit and pay for new programmes to assist those who make less cope with high housing and child care costs.
Biden’s budget for the 2025 fiscal year that starts in October includes raising the corporate income tax rate to 28 from 21, hiking rates on people making over US$400,000, forcing those with wealth of US$100 million to pay at least 25 per cent of their income in taxes, and letting the government negotiate to bring more drug costs down.
Kremlin, Nato at odds over pope’s call for Ukraine to show ‘white flag’ and start talks
The Kremlin on March 11 said a call by Pope Francis for talks to end the Ukraine war was “quite understandable”, but Nato’s boss said now was not the time to talk about “surrender”.
Pope Francis said in an interview recorded last month that Ukraine should have “the courage of the white flag” to negotiate an end to a conflict that has killed tens of thousands.
As the West grapples with how to support Ukraine and the prospect of a sharp change in US policy if Donald Trump wins November’s presidential election, Putin has essentially offered to freeze the battlefield along its current front lines, a premise Ukraine rejects.
French state services hit by ‘intense’ cyberattack: PM’s office
Several French state bodies have been hit with cyberattacks of “unprecedented intensity”, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s office said on March 11, while insisting the government had been able to contain the impact.
“Many ministerial services were targeted” from Sunday “using familiar technical means but of unprecedented intensity,” Attal’s office said, without providing further details of the targets.
A security source told AFP that the attacks “are not currently attributable to Russia,” an obvious suspect for many given Paris’ support for Kyiv since the invasion of Ukraine.
Trump calls TikTok a threat but says some kids could ‘go crazy’ without it
US presidential candidate Donald Trump said on March 11 that TikTok was a national security threat but also said that a ban on the popular app would hurt some kids and only strengthen Meta Platforms’ Facebook, which the Republican has harshly criticised.
Trump reiterated his concerns as lawmakers weigh a bill this week that would give TikTok owner ByteDance about six months to divest the popular short video app.
The US House of Representatives is set to vote on March 13 on legislation that gives China’s ByteDance a quick deadline to divest the popular TikTok short video app used by 170 million Americans.
Massa takes action against F1, FIA, Ecclestone in London High Court
Former Ferrari driver Felipe Massa has taken action in the London High Court against Formula One, former commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone and the governing FIA seeking recognition as 2008 world champion and financial compensation.
A court document provided by Massa’s representatives said the best estimate of his alleged financial losses from missing out on the title by a single point was 64 million pounds (S$109.08 million) plus interest.
That sum represented the difference in salary for the remainder of his career and money from sponsorship and commercial opportunities, as well as a 1.7 million pound bonus he would have received from Ferrari.
