Latest U.S. Department of State News
Australia to buy up to 220 Tomahawk missiles from the US
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia said it's planning to buy up to 220 Tomahawk cruise missiles from the United States after the U.S. State Department approved the sale Friday. The deal comes days after Australia announced it would buy nuclear-powered attack submarines from the...
Blinken to visit Ethiopia, Niger as US boosts Africa push
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Ethiopia and Niger next week as the Biden administration accelerates a push to engage with Africa to counter China’s growing influence on the continent, the State Department said Friday. Blinken will visit Addis...
US State Department spokesman Ned Price to step down
WASHINGTON (AP) — State Department spokesman Ned Price is stepping down from his job as the daily face of U.S. foreign policy. Price will take a job working directly with Secretary of State Antony Blinken later this month, the State Department said Tuesday, and will be replaced in...
US bans entry to Syria security agent over killings on video
BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. State Department on Monday banned entry into the U.S. of a Syrian intelligence member who appeared in a video leaked last year showing him fatally shooting people during the country’s 12-year conflict. The ban against Amjad Yousef, a member of Syria’s...
Blinken heads to Asia, with China, Russia tensions soaring
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh from a meeting with China’s top diplomat and a U.N. Security Council session on Ukraine, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to Central and South Asia next week for international talks that will put him in the same room as his Chinese and Russian counterparts....
Blinken: China's balloon incursion 'must never happen again'
MUNICH (AP) — The top diplomats from the United States and China met on Saturday in the first high-level contact between their countries since the U.S. shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon two weeks ago, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken sending the message that Beijing's surveillance...
US launches artificial intelligence military use initiative
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The United States launched an initiative Thursday promoting international cooperation on the responsible use of artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons by militaries, seeking to impose order on an emerging technology that has the potential to change the way...
Biden yanks human rights candidate over anti-Israel comments
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has withdrawn its pick of a human rights activist for a post at the Organization of American States for calling Israel an “apartheid state” and blasting a top House Democrat as being “Bought. Purchased. Controlled” by pro-Israel groups. ...
Passport rush blamed on US policy stalls adoptions in Haiti
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dozens of children are stuck in orphanages across Haiti, unable to leave the increasingly volatile country and start new lives with adoptive parents because a U.S. policy change has unleashed a rush for passports at Haiti’s main immigration office. ...
US opens embassy in Solomon Islands to counter China
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — The United States opened an embassy in the Solomon Islands on Thursday in its latest move to counter China's push into the Pacific. The embassy in the capital, Honiara, is starting small, with a chargé d’affaires, a couple of State Department staff...
