USA

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says he won’t allow the Department of Justice to seize journalists’ phone records and emails, calling the practice “wrong” in a significant departure from his predecessors.

“Absolutely, positively, it’s wrong. It’s simply, simply wrong,” he told a reporter Friday at the White House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday said he and South Korean President Moon Jae-in remain “deeply concerned” about the situation with North Korea, and announced he will deploy a new special envoy to the region to help refocus efforts on pressing Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Moon, meanwhile, welcomed “America’s return” to the world stage and said both leaders pledged in their meeting to work closely toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prospects for an ambitious infrastructure deal were thrown into serious doubt late Friday after the White House reduced President Joe Biden’s sweeping proposal to $1.7 trillion but Republican senators rejected the compromise as disappointing, saying “vast differences” remain.

UNITED NATIONS, May 21 (APP): Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Thursday afternoon and discussed the grave situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem, and also updated him on developments in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJ&K).

WASHINGTON, May 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to the Middle East “in the coming days,” the State Department said after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire halting 11 days of fighting.

Blinken spoke with his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazi, who “welcomed Secretary Blinken’s planned travel to the region,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.

21 May 2021; MEMO: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday told Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi that America cannot continue to publicly support its bombing campaign in Gaza, Axios reported.

Calling for the assault to end soon, Blinken said the US could not keep opposing French efforts at the UN Security Council for a resolution calling for a ceasefire.

Washington, May 21 (AP-PTI) The US Treasury Department said Thursday that it supports a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 per cent below the 21 per cent minimum it has been seeking to impose on the foreign profits of US-based companies.

The offer comes as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Group of 20 major economies seek an agreement on a minimum corporate tax rate.

NEW YORK, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. East Coast witnessed the arrival of a record-breaking container ship on Thursday morning amid booming international shipping business.

CMA CGM Marco Polo, with a maximum capacity of 16,022 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), arrived at Elizabeth Port Authority Marine Terminal in New Jersey as the largest container ship ever to call at any U.S. East Coast port, said a release by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the early days of the pandemic, New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski scolded those looking to capitalize on the once-in-a-century health crisis.

“This is not the time for anybody to be profiting off of selling ventilators, vaccines, drugs, treatments, PPE, anywhere in the world,” the two-term Democrat and former assistant secretary of state told MSNBC in April 2020.

He did not heed his own admonition.

SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple CEO Tim Cook will take the witness stand Friday to defend the company’s iPhone app store against charges that it has grown into an illegal monopoly — one far more profitable than his predecessor Steve Jobs envisioned when it opened up 13 years ago.

The technology company is counting on Cook’s appearance to put the finishing touches on Apple’s defense against an antitrust case brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game Fortnite.