USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — Evacuation flights have resumed for Westerners, but thousands of at-risk Afghans who had helped the United States are still stranded in their homeland with the U.S. Embassy shuttered, all American diplomats and troops gone and the Taliban now in charge.

With the United States and Taliban both insisting on travel documents that may no longer be possible to get in Afghanistan, the plight of those Afghans is testing President Joe Biden’s promises not to leave America’s allies behind.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans — private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors — in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant.

Speaking at the White House Thursday, Biden sharply criticized the tens of millions of Americans who are not yet vaccinated, despite months of availability and incentives.

Sept 9 (Reuters) - The United States and Mexico on Thursday will resume high-level economic talks for the first time in four years as the two sides seek to find common ground on a host of issues such as climate change, workers' rights and immigration.

The so-called High-Level Economic Dialogue (HLED) will seek to pursue economic opportunities beyond the trade issues covered in the new North America trade agreement — the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA — that took effect in 2020.

REDMOND, Washington (AP) — Microsoft told employees Thursday that it has indefinitely delayed their return to U.S. offices until it’s safer to do so.

“Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, we’ve decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening of our U.S. work sites,” Jared Spataro, a corporate vice president, wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft had already postponed its planned return to the workplace from September to no earlier than Oct. 4, but now says the re-opening won’t be next month.

VALDOSTA, Ga. (AP) — Rain was pouring down on southeast Georgia and coastal South Carolina as Mindy, now a tropical depression, made its way across the state state early Thursday morning.

The storm made landfall in St. Vincent Island, Florida, on Wednesday night. Mindy was expected to cause as much as 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rainfall across the Florida Panhandle and portions of southern Georgia and South Carolina through Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said. Scattered flash, urban, and small-stream floods are possible.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Now that an iconic statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee has been taken down from its perch above Richmond’s Monument Avenue, crews plan to remove a piece of history from its gigantic pedestal.

HOUMA, La. (AP) — The death toll in Louisiana from Hurricane Ida rose to 26 Wednesday, after health officials reported 11 additional deaths in New Orleans, mostly older people who perished from the heat. The announcement was grim news amid signs the city was returning to normal with almost fully restored power and a lifted nighttime curfew.

08 Sep 2021; MEMO: US President Joe Biden yesterday authorised an aid package worth $47 million to the Lebanese army.

Biden issued a memorandum authorising Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, to withdraw up to $25 million in commodities and services from the US government to provide immediate assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

He has also authorised Blinken to withdraw up to $22 million in "defense articles and services from the Ministry of Defense" to provide immediate assistance to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

08 Sep 2021; MEMO: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to set up an independent international mechanism to monitor and report on the human rights situation in Egypt and investigate grave human rights violations, including enforced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The White House budget office on Tuesday called on U.S. Congress to pass a short-term funding bill to avoid a potential federal government shutdown as current government funding is set to lapse at the end of September.

"With the end of the fiscal year rapidly approaching, it's clear that Congress will need to pass a short-term continuing resolution (CR) to provide more time for the FY 2022 process to unfold," Shalanda Young, acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in a White House blog post.