Washington DC

01 August 2022; MEMO: US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said on Monday it remains to be seen whether Tehran is willing to move forward on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and he sidestepped a question on whether Washington was prepared to return to talks on the issue, Reuters reports.

27 July 2022; MEMO: An Israel-based pharmaceutical company has announced a $4.35 billion nationwide settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits filed against it for its alleged major role in the US's opioid epidemic, which has killed over 500,000 overdose deaths throughout the past two decades.

26 July 2022; MEMO: The recent surge in political donations totalling millions of dollars by the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has triggered a backlash amongst Democrats. Questions are being asked about the ethics of allowing multi-billionaire Republican donors to influence the results of Democratic primaries and why a single-issue pro-Israel lobby group is campaigning against a Jewish candidate instead of a far-right Republican accused of making anti-Semitic remarks.

26 July 2022; MEMO: The family of slain journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, demanded justice for the Al Jazeera reporter's killing ahead of a meeting in Washington with US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

Lina Abu Akleh, her niece, posted a video on Twitter from outside the State Department saying that she and other family members "are here to demand justice for Shireen".

25 July 2022; MEMO: In a Monday phone call, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed last week's deal to reopen Ukrainian ports for grain exports, says Anadolu Agency.

The call came after Turkiye, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine signed a deal on Friday to reopen three Ukrainian ports – Odesa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny – for grain exports stuck for months due to the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its sixth month.

Washington, Jul 23 (AP-PTI) COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a raspy voice and cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team. But the president tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring, I feel much better than I sound.

Biden took off a mask and sipped water as he opened the meeting to discuss the decline in gas prices in recent weeks. Reporters were allowed into a White House auditorium to view a few minutes of the proceedings, and when they asked how Biden was feeling, he flashed a thumb's up.

21 July 2022; AA: US President Joe Biden said, last week in Jerusalem, on the first leg of his Middle East tour that Washington is "not going to wait forever" for Iran to revive a 2015 agreement on its nuclear program, hours after warning of using force against Tehran "as a last resort".

The White House, on Monday, said it anticipates major oil producers in the OPEC+ alliance to increase crude production following President Joe Biden's trip to the Middle East, Reuters reports.

"We will measure success in the next couple of weeks," said White House spokesperson, Karine Jean-Pierre, at a press briefing. "We anticipate [it] to be an increase in production, but it's going to take the next couple of weeks, and that will be up to OPEC+."

13 July 2022; MEMO: The United States called on Wednesday for "accountability" over the death of Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, whose killing during an Israeli West Bank raid is expected to be a major issue during President Joe Biden's Middle East visit, Reuters reports.

Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist working for the Al Jazeera network, was shot in the head on 11 May, while reporting on an Israeli raid in the town of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

13 July 2022; MEMO: Former US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, has admitted that he helped Washington plan coups in foreign countries, seeming to confirm an unspoken practice which many have long accused the US of conducting.