North America

21 July 2022; AA: US President Joe Biden said, last week in Jerusalem, on the first leg of his Middle East tour that Washington is "not going to wait forever" for Iran to revive a 2015 agreement on its nuclear program, hours after warning of using force against Tehran "as a last resort".

WASHINGTON, Jul 21 (APP): The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister, Tariq Fatemi, had a meeting with the US Deputy Secretary of State, Wendy Sherman, on Thursday, during which they discussed ways to advance the longstanding US-Pakistan relations as the two countries celebrate 75th anniversary of diplomatic ties.

In a tweet, the SAPM said the meeting, which took place at the State Department, was “productive”.

Fatemi also said he raised issues of human rights in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK) and the minorities in India.

WASHINGTON, July 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A number of African leaders will be guests of the American government in mid-December 2022 when President Joe Biden hosts the first in-person summit with his peers.

The United States has been under increasing pressure to assert its influence on the continent amid a growing role economic giant and rival China is exerting in the area of infrastructure development and loans.

ASPEN, Colorado, July 21 (Reuters) - Britain's spy chief said on Thursday he was skeptical that Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei actually wants to revive a nuclear deal with world powers but he added that Tehran won't want to end the talks either.

Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) known as MI6, said he still believed that reviving the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement was the best way to constrain Iran's nuclear program.

ASPEN, Colorado, July 21 (Reuters) - Britain's spy chief said on Thursday that China was now the top intelligence priority for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), known as MI6, surpassing counter-terrorism.

Richard Moore, addressing the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, said understanding how Beijing pursues its strategic goals was a particularly complex challenge.

"If you go beneath that strategy in terms of how they implement, how they organize, what their tactical intent is, and then what are the capabilities they're building up -- that's a black box," Moore said.

ASPEN, Colorado, July 21 (Reuters) - Russia's military is likely to start an operational pause of some kind in Ukraine in the coming weeks, giving Kyiv a key opportunity to strike back, Britain's spy chief said on Thursday.

Richard Moore, chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) known as MI6, also estimated that about 15,000 Russian troops had been killed so far in its war in Ukraine, adding that was "probably a conservative estimate."

WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - The Biden administration is investigating Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei over concerns that U.S. cell towers fitted with its gear could capture sensitive information from military bases and missile silos that the company could then transmit to China, two people familiar with the matter said.

UNITED NATIONS, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Africa came under the spotlight at a special high-level dialogue held Wednesday at the United Nations headquarters in New York, which was aimed at mobilizing greater support for advancing the continent's sustainable development.

The one-day event was jointly convened by the presidents of the UN General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with the theme "The Africa We Want: Reconfirming the Development of Africa as a Priority of the United Nations System."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to the highest level in more than eight months in what may be a sign that the labor market is weakening.

Applications for jobless aid for the week ending July 16 rose by 7,000 to 251,000, up from the previous week’s 244,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s the most since Nov. 13, 2021 when 265,000 Americans applied for benefits.

Analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet expected the number to come in at 242,000.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be enshrined in law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights could go further.