USA

WASHINGTON, Aug 03 (APP): The United States has expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s efforts to advance the Afghan peace process and stability in South Asia, including by encouraging the Taliban to engage in substantive negotiations.

“Pakistan has much to gain and will continue to have a critical role, will be well-positioned to have a role in supporting the outcome that not only the United States seeks, but that many of our International partners, many of the countries in the region also seek,” State Department Spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Monday.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 03 (APP): Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary-General of World Kashmir Awareness forum, a Washington-based advocacy body, has criticized as “factually and legally wrong” a statement by the Indian Ambassador to the United Nations, T S Tirumurti, that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and that issues related to the state were internal matters of his country.

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The Taliban are demanding in U.S.-backed peace talks “the lion’s share of power” in any political settlement, U.S. Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad said on Tuesday.

"At this point, they are demanding that they take the lion's share of power in the next government given the military situation as they see it," Khalilzad told the Aspen Security Forum in an online conference.

03 Aug 2021; MEMO: The United States said yesterday that Palestinian families threatened with having their homes demolished in occupied Jerusalem "should not be evicted".

In a press briefing US Department of State spokesperson, Ned Price, said: "Families should not be evicted from homes in which they have lived for decades."

"We're not going to get into these emerging reports or to comment on various detailed legal discussions, but we're closely following them and will continue to do so."

United Nations, Aug 3 (PTI) Any instability in Myanmar will directly affect India and New Delhi does not want action by the international community that would further destabilise the Southeast Asian country, India's Permanent Representative to the UN and President of UN Security Council for the month of August Ambassador T S Tirumurti has said.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Russian ambassador to the United States said that Washington had asked 24 Russian diplomats to leave the country by Sept. 3 due to visa expiration.

"We received a list of twenty-four diplomats who are expected to leave the country before September 3, 2021," Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said in an interview with the Washington-based The National Interest published on Sunday. "Almost all of them will leave without replacements because Washington has abruptly tightened visa issuing procedures."

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council is not considering a peacekeeping force in Afghanistan although the situation in the country is a matter of grave concern in light of the abrupt withdrawal of U.S. forces, said T.S. Tirumurti, the Indian UN ambassador, whose country holds the Security Council presidency for the month of August.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The governing body of the International Monetary Fund has approved a $650 billion expansion in the agency’s resources to support economically vulnerable countries battling the coronavirus pandemic and the economic downturn it has caused.

The 190-nation lending institution said Monday that its board of governors approved the expansion of its reserves known as Special Drawing Rights, the largest increase in the institution’s history.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several House Democrats have called on House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to apologize to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or resign after audio surfaced of him saying at a weekend fundraiser that it would be “hard not to hit her” with a gavel if he’s sworn in as speaker after the 2022 midterm elections.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House moved Monday to pressure state and local governments to swiftly adopt policies to protect renters after an eviction moratorium expired over the weekend, potentially pushing millions of Americans out of their homes.

In a statement on Monday, the White House emphasized that the federal government has provided $46.5 billion to keep renters in their homes. But it accused states and cities of being “too slow to act,” preventing that aid from making its way to tenants whose livelihoods have been upended by the pandemic.