North America

WASHINGTON, May 5 (Reuters) - The drones that crashed over the Kremlin earlier this week probably evaded an extensive number of defenses in and around Moscow, suggesting they might have been launched from inside Russia, U.S.-based drones experts said.

Footage of the unmanned aircraft has sent governments and open source intelligence analysts on a hunt to discover the origin of the drones designed to fly to a destination and explode.

May 5 (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued its largest ever award of nearly $279 million to a whistleblower whose information helped the regulator's enforcement action, it said on Friday.

The regulator did not disclose the case concerned in its statement.

The award is more than double the $114 million that it had issued in October 2020.

WASHINGTON (AP) — China was the biggest global jailer of journalists last year with more than 100 behind bars, according to a press freedom group, as President Xi Jinping’s government tightened control over society.

Xi’s government also was one of the biggest exporters of propaganda content, according to Reporters without Borders. China ranked second to last on the group’s annual index of press freedom, behind only neighbor North Korea.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada’s foreign minister said Thursday the country is considering the expulsion of Chinese diplomats over an intelligence agency report saying one of them plotted to intimidate the Hong Kong relatives of a Canadian lawmaker.

Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said her department was summoning China’s ambassador to a meeting to underline that Canada won’t tolerate such interference.

04 May 2023; MEMO: US President, Joe Biden, on Thursday signed a new executive order to sanction those who threaten the "peace, security or stability" in Sudan, saying that the violence in the country "must end", Anadolu News Agency reports.

"I join the peace-loving people of Sudan and leaders around the world in calling for a durable ceasefire between the belligerent parties," he said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, May 4. /TASS/: The US has nothing to do with the recent drone attack on the Kremlin, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said on MSNBC television on Thursday.

"We still don’t really know what happened," he said, adding that Washington is still assessing the situation.

Kirby said he had seen comments by Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Thursday, which stated Washington was involved in the incident.

HAVANA, May 4 (NNN-ACN) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and Maksim S. Oreshkin, advisor to the President of the Russian Federation, ratified the intention to raise the economic, commercial and financial ties between their countries to the same state as their long-lived, high-level political relations.

Diaz-Canel stated his satisfaction at welcoming Oreshkin in his first and long-awaited visit to Cuba, which follows up on the recent exchange of visits between Cuban and Russian leaders and the joint agreements emanated thereof.

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - A group allied with Donald Trump's bid for the 2024 Republican nomination is setting records for outside political spending early in a U.S. presidential campaign as he looks to box out his nearest rival Ron DeSantis before the Florida governor even launches a campaign.

The Trump-aligned Make America Great Again Inc group, known as MAGA Inc, spent more than $7 million in the first four months of 2023 on television ads attacking DeSantis, disclosures to the Federal Election Commission show.

WASHINGTON, May 4 (Reuters) - U.S. company Westinghouse unveiled plans on Thursday for a small modular reactor to generate virtually emissions-free electricity that could replace coal plants or power water desalinization and other industries.

Rita Baranwal, the Westinghouse Electricity Co's top technology officer, said the reactor, dubbed AP300 for its planned 300 Megawatt capacity, will not use special fuels or liquid metal coolants unlike some other next-generation reactors.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted Thursday of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol in a desperate bid to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 presidential election.

A jury in Washington, D.C., found Tarrio guilty of seditious conspiracy after hearing from dozens of witnesses over more than three months in one of the most serious cases brought in the stunning attack that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, as the world watched on live TV.