Washington DC

24 Oct 2020; MEMO: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s separate discussions at the State Department with his counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday failed to produce an agreement to halt the ongoing fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, Anadolu Agency reports.

Washington, Oct 24 (PTI) Quad - comprising Japan, India, Australia and the United States - is not an alliance but a grouping of countries driven by shared interests and values and interested in strengthening a rules-based order in the strategically-important Indo-Pacific region, a senior Trump administration official has said.

The four countries had in 2017 given shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the "Quad" or the Quadrilateral coalition to counter China's aggressive behaviour in the Indo-Pacific region.

Washington, Oct 24 (PTI) The 2+2 India-US ministerial in New Delhi next week would review the accomplishments and lay down the next steps for the global cooperation between the two largest democracies in the world, a senior Trump administration official has said.

The last major diplomatic engagement of the Trump administration days before the November 3 presidential election, the two-day meeting, involving four top cabinet ministers from India and the US, is expected to lay the foundation for the next four years of this relationship irrespective of who comes to power.

Washington, Oct 23 (AP/PTI) Former Vice President Joe Biden says he would push for a USD 15-per-hour minimum wage and rejects the idea that it would hurt small businesses.

Biden said at Thursday's debate: There is no evidence that when you raise the minimum wage, businesses go out of business.

President Donald Trump argued that the minimum wage should be left as an issue for the states to determine.

Washington, Oct 23 (PTI) US President Donald Trump on Thursday said that a COVID-19 vaccine is "ready" and going to be announced "within weeks" to combat the deadly disease that has killed over 223,000 Americans, as he debated with his Democratic challenger Joe Biden for the final time before the presidential election.

The debate, just less than two weeks ahead of the crucial presidential elections on November 3, started with opening remarks by both the candidates, when the mike of the other was muted.

Washington, Oct 23 (PTI) US President Donald Trump on Thursday accused China, India and Russia of not taking care of their filthy air as he justified America's withdrawal from the landmark Paris climate agreement.

"Look at China, how filthy it is. Look at Russia. Look at India. The air is filthy," Trump said during the final presidential debate with his Democratic challenger Joe Biden in Nashville, Tennessee.

22 Oct 2020; MEMO: Two Democrat senators in America have introduced a bill designed to restrict efforts by President Donald Trump’s administration to sell F-35 fighter jets to the United Arab Emirates.

Washington, Oct 22 (PTI) The State Department has proposed not to issue temporary business visas for H-1B speciality occupations which allowed several companies to send their technology professionals for a short stay to complete jobs on site in the US, a move which could affect hundreds of Indians.

Erie (US), Oct 21 (PTI) President Donald Trump on Tuesday abruptly ended an interview with a US-based news channel and said he is considering releasing a video of it ahead of the broadcast time for the "sake of accuracy in reporting".

The 'CBS News 60 minutes' interview with Lesley Stahl was scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration’s legal assault on Google actually feels like a blast from the past.

The U.S. Justice Department filed an equally high-profile case against a technology giant in 1998, accusing it of leveraging a monopoly position to lock customers into its products so they wouldn’t be tempted by potentially superior options from smaller rivals.