Washington DC

Washington, Aug 7 (PTI) US President Donald Trump has signed executive orders banning TikTok and WeChat, terming the popular Chinese apps a threat to the country's national security and economy.

The ban comes into effect in 45 days, Trump said in two separate executive orders signed on Thursday.

India was the first country to ban TikTok and WeChat, citing national security concerns. India has banned as many as 106 Chinese apps, a move welcomed by both the Trump administration and US lawmakers.

06 Aug 2020; MEMO: American President Donald Trump described the decision to send US forces to the Middle East as “the single biggest mistake” in his country’s history.

In an interview with Australian journalist Jonathan Swan for the Axios news website, Trump defended the way his administration handled the Covid-19 pandemic and he criticized past administrations’ decisions to “go to the Middle East.”

06 Aug 2020; MEMO: The United States intends to increase economic sanctions imposed on Syria in a bid to topple the regime of President Bashar Al-Assad, the New York Times reported yesterday.

Washington, Aug 6 (PTI) Former US president Barack Obama has endorsed Indian-origin Democratic senatorial candidate Sara Gideon in Maine state, which is seen as one of the most high profile Senate races in the November presidential polls.

Gideon, 48, is currently the Speaker of the Maine State Assembly, and is giving a tough fight to Republican incumbent Senator Susan Collins.

Washington, Aug 6 (PTI) The Republican Party and the Trump campaign have collectively raised over USD 165 million in July, surpassing the billion-dollar threshold with a total haul of USD 1.1 billion.

The joint re-election effort continues their cash in hand advantage, with an over USD 300 million war chest, the Republican National Committee (RNC) announced on Wednesday.

Washington, Aug 5 (AP/PTI) President Donald Trump's national security adviser, who tested positive for the coronavirus, returned to work Tuesday after recovering from a mild case of COVID-19, the White House said.

Robert O'Brien has resumed his meetings with the president, said National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot.

Washington, Aug 5 (AP/PTI) President Donald Trump said US military generals have told him that they seem to feel the massive explosion that rocked Beirut on Tuesday, killing at least 70 people, was a terrible attack likely caused by a bomb.

Trump was asked why he called it an attack and not an accident, especially since Lebanese officials say they have not determined the cause of the explosion.

(Reuters) - The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 700,000 on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally, with the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico leading the rise in fatalities.

Nearly 5,900 people are dying every 24 hours from COVID-19 on average, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the past two weeks.

That equates to 247 people per hour, or one person every 15 seconds.

Washington, Aug 4 (PTI) President Donald Trump has demanded that the US treasury should get a substantial chunk of the TikTok sale proceeds, as he set September 15 as the deadline for the popular Chinese short video app to be out of business in the country unless it is bought by an American company.

Trump was speaking to reporters at a White House news conference on Monday, hours after it announced the deadline for TikTok to stop operations in the US.

03 Aug 2020; MEMO: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck back on Sunday at demonstrations calling for his resignation, accusing protesters of trampling democracy and the Israeli media of encouraging them.

Netanyahu, who was sworn in for a fifth term in May after an election, has often complained of press bias against him, and some of the charges he faces in a corruption trial related to alleged attempts to seek favourable coverage from media barons in return for state favours