North America

WASHINGTON, August 20. /TASS/: Washington’s position that sanctions do not prevent Moscow from conducting New START Treaty inspections in the United States is misleading, the Russian embassy to the US said in the statement published on Saturday at Newsweek’s request to comment on the arms control situation.

"The inspection activities under the New START Treaty have indeed been suspended since the early 2020 by mutual agreement due to COVID-19 pandemic," the Russian embassy said in the statement.

WASHINGTON, Aug 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo told Turkish Deputy Finance Minister Yunus Elitas that Russian entities and individuals were attempting to use Turkey to bypass Western sanctions imposed over Moscow's war in Ukraine, the Treasury Department said.

In a phone call, the two also discussed ongoing efforts to implement and enforce the sanctions against Russia, the department said in a statement.

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- NASA announced Friday that it has selected 13 possible regions at the South Pole of the Moon as potential future landing sites for its Artemis III mission, a project aiming to send astronauts back to the Moon in 2025.

"Selecting these regions means we are one giant leap closer to returning humans to the Moon for the first time since Apollo," said Mark Kirasich, deputy associate administrator for the Artemis Campaign Development Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Last week's raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on former U.S. President Donald Trump's Florida home has damaged U.S. voters' trust in FBI, said a recent survey by U.S. polling company Rasmussen Reports.

The new national telephone and online survey published on Thursday said that 44 percent of U.S. voters say the FBI raid on Trump's home made them trust the FBI less.

NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- More than half of all U.S. companies are planning to lay off employees, the Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing a survey by consultant PwC.

The survey, which polled more than 700 U.S. executives and board members across a range of industries, found half of respondents are reducing headcount, and 52 percent have implemented hiring freezes.

More than 40 percent companies are rescinding job offers, the report added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund is facing pressure to reevaluate how it imposes fees on loans it disperses to needy countries like war-torn Ukraine — which is one of the fund’s biggest borrowers.

The move comes as more countries will need to turn to the IMF, as food prices and inflation internationally continues to rise.

Surcharges are added fees on loans imposed on countries that are heavily indebted to the IMF.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Federal prosecutors said Friday they have arrested the attorney general in Mexico’s previous administration on charges he committed abuses in the investigation of the 2014 disappearances of 43 students from a radical teacher college.

Prosecutors also announced they had issued arrest warrants in the case against 20 army soldiers and officers, five local officials, 33 local police officers and 11 state police, as well as 14 gang members.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he didn’t take any classified information with him when he left office.

The disclosure — which would typically be unremarkable for a former vice president — is notable given that FBI agents seized classified and top secret information from his former boss’s Florida estate on Aug. 8 while investigating potential violations of three different federal laws. Former President Donald Trump has claimed that the documents seized by agents were “all declassified.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, often knocks President Joe Biden for high inflation and a looming recession — a standard GOP argument going into the November elections.

But inflation is even worse in major Texas cities than across the nation as a whole. Government figures show inflation is 10.2% in the Houston area and 9.4% around Dallas, higher than the latest national average of 8.5%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first surprise, for the Finnish conscripts and officers taking part in a NATO-hosted military exercise in the Arctic this spring: the sudden roar of a U.S. Marine helicopter assault force, touching down in a field right next to the Finns’ well-hidden command post.