USA

UNITED NATIONS, July 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A UN Security Council vote on extending cross-border aid into war-torn Syria’s rebel-held northwest has been postponed to try to soften veto-wielder Russia’s stance, diplomatic sources said Wednesday.

“The idea is Friday now,” one diplomatic source said on condition of anonymity, with another source saying postponing would allow for “more time to finish the negotiation.”

The vote originally set for Thursday is on a draft resolution to keep open the only remaining entry point for aid into northwest Syria that bypasses Damascus.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President Joe Biden will host King Abdullah of Jordan at the White House on July 19, the White House said.

Biden reaffirmed strong US support for the monarch shortly after the kingdom announced it had quashed a rift within the royal family that shook Jordan’s image as a beacon of stability in the region.

“His Majesty’s visit will highlight the enduring and strategic partnership between the United States and Jordan, a key security partner and ally of the United States,” the White House said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Thursday will offer his most extensive comments to date about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a pullout that is raising concerns about a civil war there and drawing Republican criticism.

A senior administration official said Biden will provide an update on U.S. plans to move thousands of Afghan interpreters out of the country by the end of August.

07 July 2021; MEMO: The American administration has frozen the Abraham Fund established following the normalisation of ties between the UAE and Israel in September 2020 to promote economic cooperation, Israel's Globes reported today.

WASHINGTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday discussed Yemen and human rights issues with visiting Saudi Arabia's Deputy Defense Minister Khalid bin Salman.

Senior State Department officials met with Khalid bin Salman for discussion on regional security, support for Saudi Arabia to defend itself from cross-border attacks, and improving human rights, according to a statement issued by the State Department.

NEW YORK, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A powerful European business lobby group has called on European Union (EU) politicians not to lock out Chinese businesses as advocated by some leaders who are following the United States' lead on limiting commercial ties to China, reported The Wall Street Journal recently.

Members of the European Round Table for Industry (ERT), a trade group of almost 60 chief executives and chairpersons of major Europe-based multinationals, had called on EU leaders to push for better business terms with China and not to turn away, the journal reported on Sunday.

NEW YORK, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A group of Western researchers have said recent studies only bolstered their belief that the coronavirus evolved naturally rather than originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

Though the lab leak theory has been widely discussed in some countries, this eminent group of scientists wrote in The Lancet, a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal, that there's still no evidence for it.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia Court of Appeals suspended Rudy Giuliani’s D.C. law license Wednesday pending the disposition of his New York suspension.

In a two-page order the court cited the action last month by a New York appeals court and said Giuliani is “suspended from the practice of law in the District of Columbia pending final disposition of this proceeding.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said he would “deliver” a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the latest ransomware attacks targeting American businesses, setting up a test of Biden’s ability to balance his pledge to respond firmly to cyber breaches with his goal of developing a stable relationship with Russia.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has filed suit against three of the country’s biggest tech companies, claiming he and other conservatives have been wrongfully censored. But legal experts say the suits are likely doomed to fail, given existing precedent and legal protections.

Trump announced the action against Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube, along with the companies’ Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, at a press conference Wednesday in New Jersey, where he demanded that his accounts be reinstated.