USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has the capacity to evacuate the approximately 300 U.S. citizens remaining in Afghanistan who want to leave before President Joe Biden’s Tuesday deadline, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday. He also said the administration’s current plan is not to have “an ongoing embassy presence″ after the final U.S. troop withdrawal.

New Delhi, Aug 29 (PTI) Air India has asked a New York court to dismiss a petition filed by Britain's Cairn Energy for seizure of its assets to enforce USD 1.2 billion arbitral awards against the Indian government, saying the litigation was premature as an appeal against the arbitration award was still pending.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of voting rights advocates rallied across the country Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws that would wipe out voting restrictions advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot.

Many activists view the fight over voting rules as the civil rights issue of the era. But frustrations have mounted for months because two expansive election bills have stalled in the U.S. Senate, which is split evenly between Democrats and Republicans and the measures lack the votes to overcome a GOP blockade.

ATLANTA (AP) — Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections.

Copies of the Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections — from designing ballots to configuring voting machines and tallying results — were distributed at an event this month in South Dakota organized by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, an ally of former President Donald Trump who has made unsubstantiated claims about last year’s election.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Ida crossed the Gulf of Mexico on track for a potentially devastating landfall on the Louisiana coast Sunday, while emergency officials in the region grappled with opening shelters for displaced evacuees despite the risks of spreading the coronavirus.

The National Hurricane Center predicted Ida could be an extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph (209 kph) winds when it makes an expected afternoon landfall. The storm arrived on the exact date Hurricane Katrina ravaged Louisiana and Mississippi 16 years earlier.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden vowed Saturday to keep up airstrikes against the Islamic extremist group whose suicide bombing at the Kabul airport killed scores of Afghans and 13 American service members. He warned another attack was “highly likely” and the State Department called the threat “specific” and “credible.”

The Pentagon said the remaining contingent of U.S. forces at the airport, now numbering fewer than 4,000, had begun their final withdrawal ahead of Biden’s deadline for ending the evacuation on Tuesday.

TASS, 28 August: The US launch of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle with the Dragon spacecraft, has been cancelled due to weather conditions, the American company SpaceX twitted on Saturday.

The Dragon was supposed to deliver cargo for the International Space Station (ISS) crew.

28 Aug 2021; MEMO: During his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett at the White House, US President Joe Biden reaffirmed his administration's plan to reopen the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, news agencies reported on Friday.

At the same time, Biden expressed his opposition to the Israeli evictions of Palestinian families in occupied Jerusalem's neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah.

28 Aug 2021; MEMO: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Tunisian President Kais Saied to protect human rights and lift the "repressive" steps that have been imposed since he took the exceptional measures declared on 25 July.

WASHINGTON, Aug 27 (Reuters) - A senior Pentagon official held talks with the Chinese military for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January to focus on managing risk between the two countries, a U.S. official told Reuters on Friday.

The United States has put countering China at the heart of its national security policy for years and Biden's administration has described rivalry with Beijing as "the biggest geopolitical test" of this century.