Washington DC

Silver Spring (US), May 12 (AP) American Jews were targets of more anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 than any other year over the past four decades, a surge marked by deadly attacks on a California synagogue, a Jewish grocery store in New Jersey and a rabbi's New York home, the Anti-Defamation League reported Tuesday.

The Jewish civil rights group counted 2,107 anti-Semitic incidents in 2019, finding 61 physical assault cases, 1,127 instances of harassment and 919 acts of vandalism.

Washington, May 10 (AP) Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized President Donald Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic as an absolute chaotic disaster during a conversation with ex-members of his administration.

Obama also reacted to the Justice Department dropping its criminal case against Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, saying he worried that the basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.

Washington, May 8 (PTI) The US is working to temporarily ban the issuance of some work-based visas like H-1B, popular among highly-skilled Indian IT professionals, as well as students visas and work authorisation that accompanies them, amidst the high level of unemployment due to the coronavirus, according to a media report on Friday.

Washington, May 9 (AP) Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary has the coronavirus, the White House said, making her the second person who works at the White House complex known to test positive for the virus this week.

President Donald Trump, who publicly identified the affected Pence aide, said he was not worried about the virus spreading in the White House. Nonetheless, officials said they were stepping up safety protocols for the complex.

7 May 2020; MEMO: US President Donald Trump has vetoed a bipartisan resolution seeking to limit his powers to wage war on Iran, calling it “very insulting”.

In a statement yesterday, Trump said the measure was “based on misunderstandings of facts and law.” He swept away the bipartisan aspect of the resolution, saying that it was “introduced by Democrats as part of a strategy to win an election on November 3 by dividing the Republican Party.”

WASHINGTON, May 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — One hundred thirty-two civilians were killed last year in US global military operations, the army said, a number far lower than those published by NGOs.

The Department of Defense “assesses that there were approximately 132 civilians killed and approximately 91 civilians injured during 2019 as a result of US military operations in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia,” the Pentagon said in an annual report mandated by the US Congress.

Washington, May 6 (PTI) A fired American scientist has alleged that the Trump administration ignored the concern of doctors in the US over the importation of hydroxychloroquine from "uninspected factories" in India and Pakistan and flooded the country with the "unproven and potentially dangerous" anti-malarial drug.

Washington, May 5 (PTI) President Donald Trump and the White House on Tuesday rejected a report suggesting the daily US death toll due to the coronavirus could reach 3,000 in June.

The US death toll from the coronavirus was nearing 70,000 on Tuesday, and there were more than 1.2 million confirmed cases.

5 May 2020; MEMO: The US Democratic Party has been urged by top level American diplomats to include a number of pro-Palestinian positions within its platform for this year’s presidential election. The request was made in a letter to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) signed by 32 leading US foreign policy professionals.

5 May 2020; MEMO: The US Departments of State and Energy should commit to regular briefings to relevant committees in Congress during talks about nuclear power cooperation with Saudi Arabia, Reuters reported yesterday.

According to the Government Accountability Office (GOA), Congress should consider amending “the 1954 Atomic Energy Act” to require the briefings for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about negotiations on nuclear power sharing.