USA

14 Aug 2020; MEMO: Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar roundly beat her pro-Israel opponent in the Democratic primaries on Tuesday, making her the official nominee for Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District.

Omar was challenged by Antone Melton-Meaux, a pro-Israel candidate on whom the pro-Israel lobby had pinned their hopes to defeat the Palestine ally.

Omar received 57.4 per cent of 160,938 votes counted, with Melton-Meaux receiving 39.2 per cent of the vote.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Thursday he hoped the Israel-UAE deal can help realize a two-state solution with the Palestinians for peace in the Middle East.

Israel and the UAE agreed to normalize ties in a landmark deal, only the third such accord the Jewish state has struck with an Arab nation, in which it pledged to suspend annexation of Palestinian lands.

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — If a COVID-19 vaccine is proven effective, the US will ensure it’s distributed for free to all Americans, officials said, underscoring there will be no shortcuts on safety.

“We are not at all reducing the regulatory rigor with which we will evaluate and hopefully approve vaccines,” Paul Mango, a senior health department official, told reporters.

WASHINGTON, Aug 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The leaders of Israel and the United Arab Emirates will sign their historic peace accord in the White House in around three weeks, US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday.

Trump, speaking at press conference hours after the deal was announced, praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the UAE’s ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan as “fantastic” partners who had demonstrated “vision and leadership.”

“I look forward to hosting them at the White House very soon to formally sign the agreement,” he told reporters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. House of Representatives Republican leader Kevin McCarthy said on Friday that Democratic legislation on coronavirus relief would undermine the stock market, if enacted into law.

“If we went forward with what the Democrats asked for in that $3 trillion? I believe the market would drop hard because it would put greater debt on all taxpayers,” McCarthy told CNBC.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday welcomed an agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), under which Israel will suspend its plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, said his spokesman on Thursday.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he intended to give his speech accepting Republican presidential nomination at the White House lawn, drawing criticism by Democrats, according to U.S. media reports.

"I'll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It's a place that makes me feel good. It makes the country feel good," the New York Post quoted Trump as saying in an exclusive interview.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- U.S. economic recovery is facing significant risks as Congress remains deadlocked over the COVID-19 relief bill and President Donald Trump's recent executive orders fall well short of what is needed to boost recovery, economists said.

As negotiations between Republican and Democratic lawmakers stalled over the new relief bill, Trump on Saturday bypassed Congress to sign four executive orders to extend certain pandemic relief.

(AP) --- TikTok and its U.S. employees are planning to take President Donald Trump’s administration to court over his sweeping order to ban the popular video app, according to a lawyer preparing one of the lawsuits.

The employees’ legal challenge to Trump’s executive order will be separate from a pending lawsuit from the company that owns the app, though both will argue that the order is unconstitutional, said Mike Godwin, an internet policy lawyer representing the employees.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Justice Department investigation has found Yale University is illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants, in violation of federal civil rights law, officials said Thursday.

Yale denied the allegation, calling it “meritless” and “hasty.”