USA

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden will host a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel next Thursday to affirm "deep and enduring" ties between the NATO allies while also tackling some areas of disagreement, the White House said on Friday.

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the two leaders would discuss ransomware attacks that have hit companies in the United States and around the world, as well as the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, which Washington opposes.

UNITED NATIONS, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The Russian and U.S. ambassadors at the United Nations on Friday saw the adoption by the Security Council of a resolution on Syria as an important moment for their countries' relations.

The Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution on the re-authorization of the cross-border aid mechanism for Syrians after Russia and the United States reached compromise in last-minute talks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has told Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call that he must “take action” against cybercriminals acting in his country and that the U.S. reserves the right to “defend its people and its critical infrastructure” from future attacks. the White House said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol is expected to hold its first public hearing this month with police officers who responded to the attack and custodial staff who cleaned up afterward, chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson said.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California denied 21 oil drilling permits this week in the latest move toward ending fracking in a state that makes millions from the petroleum industry but is seeing widespread drought and more dangerous fire seasons linked to climate change.

State Oil and Gas Supervisor Uduak-Joe Ntuk sent letters Thursday to Aera Energy denying permits to drill using hydraulic fracturing in two Kern County oil fields to “protect “public health and safety and environmental quality, including (the) reduction and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.”

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Washington state on Friday became the second state in the Pacific Northwest in as many days to announce emergency rules that provide farmworkers and others who work outdoors more protection from hot weather in the wake of an extreme heat wave that is believed to have killed hundreds of people.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — When grieving with those who lost loved ones in a building collapse, President Joe Biden invoked the car crash that claimed members of his own family decades ago. When explaining his decision to pull troops from Afghanistan, he remembered his veteran son. When discussing the importance of education, he recalled the teachers who helped him overcome his childhood stutter.

And when he met with Queen Elizabeth and then Vladimir Putin on a recent trip abroad, he couldn’t resist bringing up his mother with both of them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has fired the commissioner of Social Security after the official refused to resign, and Biden accepted the deputy commissioner’s resignation, the White House said.

Biden asked commissioner Andrew Saul to resign, and his employment was terminated Friday after he refused the Democratic president’s request, a White House official said.

Deputy Commissioner David Black agreed to resign, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Crews in Charlottesville are preparing to remove a Confederate statue that became a rallying point for white supremacists and helped inspire their violent 2017 rally that left a woman dead and dozens injured.

WASHINGTON (AP) — “A disservice to the country.” “Inaccurate disinformation.” “Literally killing people.”

For months, the Biden White House refrained from criticizing Republican officials who played down the importance of coronavirus vaccinations or sought to make political hay of the federal government’s all-out effort to drive shots into arms. Not any longer.

With the COVID-19 vaccination rate plateauing across the country, the White House is returning fire at those they see as spreading harmful misinformation or fear about the shots.