Washington DC

WASHINGTON, May 19 (NNN-AGENCIES) — President Donald Trump attacked the United Nations health body as a Chinese “puppet” on Monday and confirmed he is considering slashing or canceling US support.

“They’re a puppet of China, they’re China-centric to put it nicer,” he said at the White House.

Trump said the United States pays around $450 million annually to the World Health Organization, the largest contribution of any country. Plans are being crafted to slash this because “we’re not treated right.”

18 May 2020; MEMO: A pro-Israel American campus group has failed in its bid to have a professor removed from the position of interim dean of a department at the George Washington University because of her support for the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

WASHINGTON, May 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) – The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said, it launched an investigation into President Donald Trump’s firing of the State Department Inspector General, Steve Linick, on Friday.

The House panel said, the investigation was launched by its chairman, Eliot Engel, and senator Bob Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

The two Democratic lawmakers requested that administration officials preserve all records related to the firing and turn the information over to the committees by May 22.

16 May 2020; MEMO: Turkish defense officials on Friday distributed protective health supplies to soldiers stationed at a NATO Allied Land Command based in Izmir, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement, the Turkish Ministry of National Defense said it distributed the supplies to 320 allied staff of 23 NATO member countries as part of the fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Washington, May 16 (AP) The day he declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency, President Donald Trump made a cryptic offhand remark.

I have the right to do a lot of things that people don't even know about," he said at the White House.

Trump wasn't just crowing. Dozens of statutory authorities become available to any president when national emergencies are declared.

Washington, May 16 (PTI) President Donald Trump has announced that the US will donate a lot of ventilators to India to help it fight the "invisible enemy", moments after he underlined the close partnership between the two countries and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi his "good friend".

Trump also said the US and India were cooperating to develop a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus that has claimed 307,666 lives and infected more than 4.5 million people globally since it emerged in China in December last year.

WASHINGTON, May 16 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A government watchdog fired suddenly by Pres Donald Trump was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said a Democratic lawmaker who accused the president of committing a potentially illegal act of retribution.

Trump sacked State Department Inspector General Steve Linick late on Friday in his latest abrupt dismissal of an official tasked with monitoring wrongdoing inside a government agency.

15 May 2020; MEMO: Boeing has won two contracts worth $2.6 billion to deliver more than 1,000 air-to-surface and anti-ship missiles to Saudi Arabia, the US’ defence department announced yesterday.

In an official statement, the Pentagon explained that the first contract was worth $1.97 billion, adding that it would include “modernizing SLAM ER cruise missiles and delivering 650 new missiles in support of the government of Saudi Arabia.”

Washington, May 15 (AP) Nearly 3 million laid-off workers applied for US unemployment benefits last week as the viral outbreak forced more companies to slash jobs even though most states have begun to let some businesses reopen.

Roughly 36 million people have now sought jobless aid in just the two months since the coronavirus first forced businesses to close down and shrink their workforces, the government said Thursday.

Washington, May 15 (AP) Long-term US mortgage rates were mostly steady this week, hovering near all-time lows.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate on the benchmark 30-year home loan edged up to 3.28 per cent from 3.26 per cent last week. A year ago, the rate stood at 4.07 per cent.

The average rate on the 15-year fixed-rate mortgage eased to 2.72 per cent from 2.73 per cent last week.