USA

29 Aug 2020; MEMO: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has approved a plan to halt US foreign assistance to Ethiopia over the country’s dispute with Egypt and Sudan over the Renaissance Dam, Foreign Policy reported Thursday.

29 Aug 2020; MEMO: Turkey’s Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations Feridun Sinirlioğlu confirmed that the allegations made against Turkey of cutting off water from the city of Al-Hasakah, in north-eastern Syria, are completely false.

Deputy Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Ramesh Rajasingham announced during a session of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, on Thursday, that there are frequent drinking water disruptions in the city of Al-Hasakah and at Al-Hawl camp.

Washington, Aug 29 (PTI) Indian-origin Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party's vice-presidential candidate, has pledged to rejoin the Paris climate agreement and re-enter the Iran nuclear deal to restore "our place in the world" and win back the "trust and support" of the US' Asian and European allies if her party wins the November presidential election.

(Reuters) - Facebook Inc (FB.O) made an “operational mistake” in not acting sooner to remove a page for a militia group that posted a call to arms in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the company’s Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Friday.

The social media company said on Wednesday it had removed the page for the Kenosha Guard, and an event listing there for Armed Citizens to Protect Our Lives and Property as it violated the company’s policy against “militia organizations”.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump is willing to sign a $1.3 trillion coronavirus relief bill, a top aide said on Friday, but Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the sum was not enough to meet the needs of the American people.

Trump said later that Pelosi was only interested in bailing out states run by Democrats, casting doubt on chances of reviving stalled talks for another round of fiscal stimulus.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. armed forces will have no role in carrying out the election process or resolving a disputed vote, the top U.S. military officer has told Congress.

The comments from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscore the extraordinary political environment in America, where the president has declared without evidence that the expected surge in mail-in ballots will make the vote “inaccurate and fraudulent,” and has suggested he might not accept the election results if he loses. Milley’s comments were released Friday.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — A Kansas girl’s killer Friday became the fifth federal inmate put to death this year, an execution that went forward only after a higher court tossed a ruling that would have required the government to get a prescription for the drug used to kill him.

Questions about whether the drug pentobarbital causes pain prior to death had been a focus of appeals for Keith Nelson, 45, the second inmate executed this week in the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions this summer after a 17-year hiatus.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California wildfires were slowly being corralled Friday as cooler, humid weather and reinforcements aided firefighters and tens of thousands of people were allowed back home after days of death and destruction.

In the past two days, evacuation orders were lifted for at least 50,000 people in the San Francisco Bay Area and wine country, officials with the state fire agency, Cal Fire, said.

In heavily damaged areas, crews were working to restore electricity and water so more people could return to their homes.

ANTIOCH, Ill. (AP) — A white 17-year-old who says he went to protests in Wisconsin to protect businesses and people has become a flashpoint in a debate over anti-racism demonstrations that have gripped many American cities and the vigilantism that has sometimes met them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Public health experts expressed concern Friday about President Donald Trump’s largely mask-free, socially un-distanced Republican convention event on the White House lawn, saying some of his 1,500 guests may have inadvertently brought and spread the coronavirus to others.

“There almost certainly were individuals there who were infected with COVID-19 but don’t know it,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University..