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Senate leaders and moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin struck a deal late Friday over emergency jobless benefits, breaking a nine-hour logjam that had stalled the party’s showpiece USD 1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill. The compromise, announced by the West Virginia lawmaker and a Democratic aide, seemed to clear the way for the Senate to begin a climactic, marathon series of votes expected to lead to approval of the sweeping legislation. The overall bill, President Joe Biden’s top legislative priority, is aimed at battling the killer pandemic and nursing the staggered…

The Biden Administration has said that by restoring US credibility and reasserting forward-looking global leadership, it will ensure that America, not a more assertive and authoritarian China, sets the international agenda, working alongside countries like India to shape new norms and agreements globally that advance its interests and reflect its values. The comments were made in the Biden administration’s Interim National Security Strategic Guidance released on Wednesday. It lays out a vision for how the United States can seize what we view as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to renew America’s advantages…

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has tightened the city-wide Low Emission Zone (LEZ) rules, which means that heavy goods vehicles (HGVs), buses and coaches that fail to meet emissions standards will be hit with a daily charge of up to 300 pounds. The new standards, Euro VI (NOx and PM), apply to heavy vehicles across most of Greater London and match the emission standards of the central London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). The LEZ, which operates 24 hours a day and every day of the year from this…