Category: WASHINGTON

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Keeping his Vice Presidential choice tightly under wraps, Republican frontrunner and former US President Donald Trump has ruled out Indian-American rival Nikki Haley as his running mate for 2024.

US President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump have presented different narratives of January 6, 2021 Capitol riots with the veteran Democrat calling it the day "we nearly lost America" while the business tycoon termed it a "beautiful day".

Reacting to the news that Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows blocked Trump from the state's ballot because she alleged Trump violated the 14th Amendment through his actions on January 6, Axelrod told a media network : "I have very, very strong reservations about all of this."

US President Joe Biden has bypassed the Congress for the second time in a row this month to release $147.5 million in aid for military equipment as emergency arms sales to Israel to fight Hamas.

Putin has expressed privately the willingness to a ceasefire through intermediaries, The New York Times reported on Saturday citing two former senior Russian officials close to the Kremlin and American and international officials who have heard the message from Putin's envoys.

Speaking at the end-of-year press availability on Wednesday, Blinken said in the coming year, the US will continue to stand "shoulder-to-shoulder" with those who share its vision for a "free, open, prosperous, and secure world".

The RNC reminded candidates they signed a pledge not to participate in debates like the one in Des Moines, which is not sanctioned by the national party, NBC said quoting a letter it obtained from the RNC.

US had hastened pouring arms and ammunition into Israel since the war-time visit of President Joe Biden to Tel Aviv with 45 cargo planes loaded with armaments dispatched to reach the strife torn country.

The US imposed the financial sanctions on ten members and financiers of Hamas, in the Middle East , particularly Sudan , including figures tied to a covert investment portfolio meant to benefit the militant group, UK's Independent reported. 

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that October 11 was the final receipt date for new cap-subject H-2B worker petitions requesting an employment start date before April 1, 2024. 

One update from September 28 warned, based on multiple streams of intelligence, that the terror group Hamas was poised to escalate rocket-attacks across the border, CNN reported citing the sources as saying.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has confirmed that the Pentagon is moving an aircraft carrier, warships and jets to the eastern Mediterranean and will also give Israel additional equipment and ammunition in the wake of the Hamas attack on the Jewish state,

The US will provide munitions and equipment to Israel and boost American forces in the Middle East in response to the attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Pentagon said on Sunday.

Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top military adviser said Tehran supported the attacks by Hamas against Israel and would continue to back the Islamist fighters “until the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem”, the media reported.

Republican Kevin McCarthy, who has been ousted as the Speaker of the US House of Representatives in a right-wing revolt for the first time ever in the country's history, has said that he will not run for the post again.

"This bill ensures that active-duty troops will continue to get paid, travellers will be spared airport delays, millions of women and children will continue to have access to vital nutrition assistance, and so much more. This is good news for the American people," he added.

In a post on X earlier on Thursday, Jaishankar said: "Great to meet my friend US Secretary of State Blinken at State Department today. A wide ranging discussion, following up on PM Narendra Modi's June visit.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a wide range of discussions on the India-US relationship in a string of meetings with top US officials on Thursday, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan.

US Senators fell into deep negotiations on Monday to avoid a potential government shutdown, with the house in utter chaos over the government’s spending plans, by working out a stopgap legislation and decide whether to include funding to Ukraine as part of it.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) warned at least three Americans active in the Sikh community that their lives were in danger in the immediate aftermath of the murder of a "Sikh activist" in Canada last June, a media report said.

The US has reaffirmed that it will host the 2026 G20 Summit here as it sees itself as a dominant partner to balance the equations for the developing world in a strife-torn geo-political world leading to a global economic crisis. 

Kurt Campbell, President Joe Biden’s Deputy Assistant and Coordinator for the Indo-Pacific Region on US foreign policy, said the White House views the absence of Putin and Xi as a great disappointment to India when world leaders were attending.

Xi met Modi in Johannesburg on August 23 on the sidelines of the BRICS summit. Xi is minded not to attend the G20 Summit in New Delhi, according to several anonymous sources cited by several Western media houses, the noted US weekly Newsweek said in a special report on G20.

President Joe Biden is "excited" to visit India for the G20 leaders' meeting, the US said. And his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be a "follow-on" to their "very robust" discussions during the latter's state visit in July.

US President Joe Biden will focus on "fundamentally reshaping and scaling up the multilateral development banks" during his upcoming visit this week to New Delhi for the G20 leaders' meeting, the White House said.