19 July 2023; MEMO: British Conservative MP, Tobias Ellwood, has praised the Taliban government in Afghanistan for "totally transforming" the country, calling for the United Kingdom to establish relations with and recognise the new Afghan authorities.

Washington, Jul 20 (PTI) The US is working with India on proposals to co-produce extended-range artillery and infantry vehicles to meet its operational requirements along its border with China and address its "coercion and harassment", a top Pentagon official said on Thursday.

The Indian and Chinese troops are locked in an over-three-year confrontation in certain friction points in eastern Ladakh.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hush-money payments. Classified records. And now, his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that led to the Capitol attack. Already facing criminal cases in New York and Florida, Donald Trump is in increasing legal peril as investigations into his struggle to cling to power after his election loss appear to be coming to a head.

China does not want a trade war with the United States but will retaliate against any further U.S. restrictions on technology and trade, the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. said.

Ambassador Xie Feng criticized U.S. curbs on the sale of microchips and chipmaking equipment to China that were imposed last year by the Biden administration. Beijing has described the measure as part of an effort to “contain” China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to vote Thursday on a new ethics code for the Supreme Court, an attempt to respond to recent revelations about justices’ interactions with wealthy donors and others. Republicans are strongly opposed, arguing the ethics bill could “destroy” the high court.

20 July 2023; MEMO: The Israeli government could rethink its polarising drive to overhaul the judiciary if there is a major escalation in protests, a cabinet minister said on Wednesday, in a signal of pliability as Washington tries to close ranks with its ally, Reuters reports.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister ordered the expulsion of the Swedish ambassador from Iraq and the withdrawal of the Iraqi charge d’affaires from Sweden on Thursday as a man desecrated of a copy of the Quran in Stockholm.

The diplomatic blowup came hours after protesters angered by the planned burning of a copy of the Quran stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad, breaking into the compound and lighting a small fire.

19 July 2023; MEMO: US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, on Tuesday signed a new national security waiver letting Iraq pay Iran for electricity that, for the first time, allows such payments to go to accounts at non-Iraqi banks, a US official told Reuters.

20 July 2023; MEMO: Former Prime Minister of Jordan Ali Abu Al-Ragheb has called for an end to the Hashemite Kingdom's "soft diplomacy" approach towards Israel in order to suppress what he called the aspirations of the "ruling trinity" of the occupation state — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — even if it leads to war.

DADAAB, Kenya (AP) — Abdikadir Omar was trapped in an extremist-controlled town in Somalia for years until May, when he slipped out to make a 12-day journey with his wife and seven children to neighboring Kenya in search of food and safety.

To his surprise, “I found peace but no food,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press. He stood near the withered maize he tried to plant around his family’s makeshift shelter of branches and plastic sheeting outside one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

20 July 2023; MEMO: Tunisia has borrowed $87.1 million from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to support the country's grain production, Anadolu has reported. The loan agreement was signed by Economy and Planning Minister Samir Saied and AfDB Deputy Director General for North Africa Region, Malinne Blomberg.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is courting unions as a cornerstone of the country’s economic future with a speech at a Philadelphia shipyard on Thursday — just as some major unions are weighing strikes that could disrupt the growth he wants to campaign on in 2024.