Christopher Hill to be new US ambassador in Iraq
President Barack Obama confirms that Christopher Hill is becoming the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq.
Officials had said earlier this month that Hill was the leading candidate to replace Ryan Crocker as the top US diplomat in Baghdad.
Speaking to Marines Friday at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, Obama said Hill has shown the c that is needed now in Iraq.
Hill is a career foreign service officer who served as the Bush administration's lead negotiator with North Korea. He earlier served as a negotiator in the crises in Bosnia and Kosovo.
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Chinese ice cream brand under fire for products that don't melt
A Chinese brand once dubbed the "Hermes of ice cream" has come under fire after internet users said some of its products do not melt -- even when baked with a blowtorch. The most expensive offering of Chicecream -- called "Zhong Xue Gao" in Chinese -- costs 66 yuan ($10). Chicecream has promoted itself as a Chinese alternative to Western brands such as Magnum and Haagen-Dazs, using supposedly natural ingredients and locally-inspired product designs.
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Russia pounds rebel-claimed region, Ukraine pushes back
Russia redoubled its push for Ukraine's eastern Donbas region Wednesday, with the Ukrainian military claiming to have repelled some advances and both sides reporting casualties. The Ukrainian armed forces General Staff said troops stopped enemy units advancing towards Sloviansk, a city in Donetsk, one of two provinces in the Donbas whose capture is among Moscow's main goals. “Every crime will be punished,” he wrote on social media.
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FBI, MI5 chiefs warn of ‘immense’ China threat at rare joint address
FBI Director Christopher Wray and United Kingdom MI5 Director General Ken McCallum on Wednesday cautioned business leaders against threat from the Chinese government, in an unprecedented joint address at the British intelligence service's London headquarters. Speaking to an audience of officials and business executives in Thames House, Wray talked about “complex, enduring, and pervasive danger” to the innovative businesses from China.
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Elon Musk now father of 9, had twins last year with company executive: Report
Tesla chief Elon Musk is now believed to be the father of nine children as a Business Insider report has now claimed that Musk had twins in November 2021 with Shivon Zilis, a top executive at Elon Musk's Neuralink, a brain-chip startup. She has been working in the company since May 2017, the same month she was named a project director in artificial intelligence at Tesla where she worked until 2019.
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UK PM Boris Johnson fires ally and digs in despite calls to quit
Britain's scandal-hit Prime Minister Boris Johnson attempted a rearguard offensive late Wednesday against a cabinet and Conservative party revolt, firing a top ally and vowing to "fight on" despite dozens of his ministers resigning. The dismissal from the cabinet of "levelling up" secretary Michael Gove -- Johnson's right-hand-man in Britain's 2016 Brexit referendum campaign -- dramatically showed that the Conservative leader was not going to bow out without a fight.
