USA

21 Aug 2020; MEMO: Despite suffering a humiliating defeat at the United Nations Security Council, Donald Trump remains undeterred from reimposing sanctions on Iran.

The embattled president announced yesterday that he intends to restore virtually all sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

21 Aug 2020; MEMO: The US president on Thursday informed visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi of his commitment to the rapid withdrawal of the international coalition forces from Iraq within three years, Anadolu Agency reports.

“We have withdrawn significantly from Iraq and very few soldiers remain,” Trump said, according to the Iraqi News Agency.

“Al-Kadhmi is a man with whom I get along very well,” he added.

21 Aug 2020; MEMO: The US designated six senior Syrian regime officials Thursday as part of Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act, including a top media advisor to Bashar al-Assad, ahead of the seventh anniversary of a chemical attack in a Damascus suburb, Anadolu Agency reports.

Washington, Aug 21 (PTI) When Joe Biden was elected as one of the youngest US senators in 1972, one of the first letters that he received was from Mumbai, with the sender having the same last name as his.

About five years ago, the Democratic Party's presidential nominee learned that there are five Bidens living in Mumbai, but is probably yet to make a connection with them.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Trump administration ran into immediate opposition after its top diplomat officially informed the United Nations it is demanding the restoration of all U.N. sanctions on Iran, with allies and opponents declaring the U.S. action illegal and doomed to failure.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted Thursday that the United States has the legal right to “snap back” U.N. sanctions even though President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six major powers that was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing public backlash, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is set to testify Friday about disruptions in mail delivery as a Senate committee digs into changes in postal operations being made just as millions of Americans will be relying on mail-in ballots for the November election.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. Navy intelligence specialist Colleen Grace was asleep on a remote air base in Iraq in 2019 when she was woken up by knocking on the door next to her room, and then a voice she recognized.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus recession struck swiftly and violently. Now, with the U.S. economy still in the grip of the outbreak five months later, the recovery looks fitful and uneven — and painfully slow.

The latest evidence came Thursday, when the government reported that the number of workers applying for unemployment climbed back over 1 million last week after two weeks of declines.

The figures suggest that employers are still slashing jobs even as some businesses reopen and some sectors like housing and manufacturing have rebounded.

PHOENIX (AP) — An advocacy group released what they say is previously unseen body camera footage Thursday showing Phoenix police mocking the religion of a Black Muslim man who later died in their custody.

Muslim Advocates, a national civil rights organization, released video from the 2017 death of Muhammad Abdul Muhaymin Jr. in which he can be heard crying out in pain and calling for Allah, the Arabic word for God.

An officer appears to say “Allah? He’s not going to help you right now ... Relax dude. Stop moving. Stop resisting. You understand?”

OLD FORGE, Pa. (AP) — Determined to keep Pennsylvania in his column, President Donald Trump took the fight to Joe Biden’s old backyard Thursday and insisted his Democratic rival would be the state’s “worst nightmare” if elected president.

In a particularly in-your-face bit of campaign trolling, Trump staged a small rally just outside the former vice president’s birthplace in Scranton mere hours before Biden was to formally accept the Democratic presidential nomination.