AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Federal judges in Georgia and Texas have ruled against key provisions of two controversial election laws passed two years ago as the Republican Party sought to tighten voting rules after former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential contest.

KARACHI, Pakistan, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Pakistan's President Arif Alvi said on Sunday he had refused to sign into law two bills that would give authorities more power to prosecute people for acts against the state and military, a move the law ministry said was unconstitutional.

The bills have already been passed by both houses of Pakistan's parliament but Alvi is a member of former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, which opposes the coalition government that passed the two bills.

CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) — A judge has ordered Starbucks to pay an additional $2.7 million to a former regional manager earlier awarded more than $25 million after she alleged she that and other white employees were unfairly punished after the high-profile arrests of two Black men at a Philadelphia location in 2018.

In June, Shannon Phillips won $600,000 in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages after a jury in New Jersey found that race was a determinative factor in Phillips’ firing, in violation of federal and state anti-discrimination laws.

KIEV, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine will get at least 42 F-16 fighter jets after the end of the training course for pilots, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday.

"F-16. Breakthrough agreement ... Thank you, the Netherlands," Zelensky wrote in a Telegram post after meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at a Dutch military base in Eindhoven.

The F-16 fighters will help Ukraine to boost its air defense capabilities, Zelensky said.

19 August 2023; MEMO: Tens of Syrians in Jaramana in the Damascus countryside, south of Syria, demonstrated on Friday against deteriorating living conditions in the regime-controlled area, Aram Media reported.

Local sources said that the demonstrations started before the municipal council and headed towards Al-Soyouf Square in the city centre.

Aug 17 (Reuters) - U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that it was tracking a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The lineage is named BA.2.86, and has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel, the CDC said in a post on messaging platform X.

"As we learn more about BA.2.86, CDC's advice on protecting yourself from COVID-19 remains the same," the agency said.

18 August 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia and China have signed a number of housing and infrastructure agreements amounting to over $1.33 billion, furthering ties and investment between the two countries.

At the Saudi-China Business Forum in Beijing, which commenced today, Saudi Arabia’s Minister for Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing, Majid bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, invited Chinese firms to invest in the Kingdom’s real estate sector. 

CAMP DAVID, Md. (AP) — President Joe Biden opened a historic summit with Japan and South Korea at Camp David on Friday focused on strengthening security and economic ties at a time of increasing concerns about North Korea’s persistent nuclear threats and China’s provocations in the Pacific.

NEW YORK (AP) — Miami Mayor Francis Suarez claimed on Friday that he has qualified for next week’s Republican presidential debate and would become the ninth White House hopeful to meet the fundraising and polling thresholds required to participate in the opening face-off of the 2024 campaign.

But senior advisers with the Republican National Committee who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share internal discussions said later that Suarez had not yet officially met the criteria.

17 August 2023; MEMO: Iranian and Saudi Arabian military officials have met at the sidelines of the 11th Moscow Conference on International Security, the first time since the two countries resumed diplomatic relations as part of a Chinese-brokered deal in March, ending six years of severed ties.

Canada (AP) — Firefighters worked to keep open the only route out of the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories as a wildfire moved closer to the city of 20,000 and residents rushed to beat a noon Friday deadline to evacuate.

Airtankers flew missions overnight to keep the highway out of Yellowknife open, and authorities were guiding a long caravan of motorists through fire zones, officials said. Meanwhile, a network of fire guards, sprinklers and water cannons was being established to try to protect the city from the fire, which had moved to within 15 kilometers (9 miles).

18 August 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and his Iranian counterpart, Ebrahim Raisi, discussed Iran’s possible future membership of the BRICS grouping during a phone call on Thursday, Russian state news agency, TASS reported, citing the Kremlin, Reuters reports.