USA

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentine Economy Minister Martín Guzmán met in Washington DC with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to further discuss renegotiations of the country’s US $ 45 billion debt.

The South American official also held an encounter with David Lipton, a top adviser to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

Also Tuesday, Argentine President Alberto Fernández announced he believed the deal with the IMF would not be finalized before 2022.

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The top diplomats from Israel and the United Arab Emirates are set to hold three-way talks in Washington Wednesday as President Joe Biden’s administration embraces and looks to expand a normalisation drive.

Concerns about Iran — the specter of which helped bring together Israel and Gulf states when they established relations last year as part of the Abraham Accords — are expected to be high on the agenda after Biden’s early diplomatic overtures to Tehran bore little immediate fruit.

WASHINGTON, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Germany will most likely have a new government before Christmas, the Social Democrats' candidate for chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on Wednesday.

The atmosphere in the exploratory talks so far has been very constructive, Scholz, who is also German finance minister in the outgoing coalition, told reporters in Washington. He said he was confident that the project could succeed "and that we will have a new government before Christmas".

SOLVANG, Calif. (AP) — A major highway in Southern California coastal mountains remained closed Wednesday and evacuation orders were in place as a growing wildfire chewed through dry vegetation in the region.

More than 760 firefighters battled the Alisal Fire, which covered 21 square miles (54 square kilometers) along the south Santa Barbara County coast and was only 5% contained, county fire officials said.

DALLAS (AP) — When Southwest Airlines canceled more than 2,000 flights over the weekend, citing bad weather and air traffic control issues, unsupported claims blaming vaccine mandates began taking off.

Conservative politicians and pundits, including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, alleged the flight disruptions resulted from pilots and air traffic controllers walking off their jobs or calling in sick to protest federal vaccination requirements.

The airline, its pilots’ union and the Federal Aviation Administration denied that.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Another surge in consumer prices in September sent inflation to 5.4% from a year ago, matching the highest such rate since 2008 as tangled global supply lines continue to create havoc.

Consumer prices rose 0.4% in September from August as supply chain disruptions kept many goods scarce. The costs of new cars, food, gas, and restaurant meals all jumped.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic.

The COLA, as it’s commonly called, amounts to $92 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Social Security Administration. That marks an abrupt break from a long lull in inflation that saw cost-of-living adjustments averaging just 1.65% a year over the last 10 years.

13 Oct 2021; MEMO: The United States yesterday condemned cross-border attacks on Turkish soil and offered condolences for the killings of two Turkish police officers in northern Syria, Anadolu reported.

"We condemn the cross-border attack against our NATO ally Turkey," State Department spokesman Ned Price said at a news conference. "We express our condolences to the families of the Turkish national police officers who were killed in Syria."

13 Oct 2021; MEMO: US Speaker of the Congress Nancy Pelosi said that bipartisan support for Israel in the US is a source of pride, the Jerusalem Post reported.

"It is a privilege to talk about the importance of the US-Israel bond, one based on our mutual security, mutual values, and is again something that is a source of pride to all of us in the Congress who work on this," Pelosi said in a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Two U.S. Postal Service workers were fatally shot Tuesday at a postal facility in Memphis and a third employee identified as the shooter died from a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities said. It was the third high-profile shooting in or near that west Tennessee city in weeks.