The White House said it was in the final stage of drafting a plan for closing the Guantánamo prison for foreign terrorism suspects, racing against time to resolve one of President Barack Obama's most intractable problems. Spokesman Josh Earnest said the administration hoped to short circuit opposition from Republicans in Congress who have blocked Obama from closing the prison.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday called the restoration of diplomatic relations with Cuba a new beginning but said many differences remain between the two nations and warned that the full normalization of ties will be a long process. He spoke hours after ceremonies were held in Havana and Washington to mark the restoration of ties after more than five decades of hostility.
Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said the US central bank remains on track to raise interest rates this year, with labor markets expected to steadily improve and turmoil abroad unlikely to throw the US economy off track.
US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton criticized Wall Street and her Republican rivals, promising to impose tougher regulations on banks and raise the wages of ordinary Americans if she wins the 2016 White House race. Under pressure from a campaign rival on the left, Clinton said she would appoint strict overseers to ensure that financial institutions never again indulge in the risky behavior that helped cause the 2008 banking crash.
The International Monetary Fund has trimmed its forecast for global economic growth for this year to take into account the impact of recent weakness in the United States. But the global financial institution said growth prospects for next year remain undimmed, despite Greece's debt crisis and recent volatility in Chinese financial markets.
Trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wednesday restarted after being suspended for more than three hours due to a technical fault. The NYSE has yet to give full details of the problem, but emphasized that it was not the result of a cyber hack. Other exchanges, including Nasdaq, reported no problems and were trading normally.
Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff capped off her U.S. tour on Wednesday with a visit to Silicon Valley, where she met with top technology executives and took a ride in Google Inc's self-driving car. Rousseff used her visit to strengthen ties with U.S. technology companies after visiting Washington, D.C. and New York City earlier in the week.
US employment rose by 223,000 in June, while the April and May figures were revised down, official figures show. May's figure was revised from a rise of 280,000 jobs to a rise of 254,000, according to the US Labor Department.
United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on Thursday that his chamber is unlikely to approve a US ambassador to Cuba, sending a quick rebuff to President Barack Obama and his drive to normalize relations with the U.S. neighbor and longtime Cold War foe.
The United States asked Switzerland on Thursday to extradite seven FIFA officials arrested in an investigation into a global bribery scandal at soccer's governing body, the Swiss Federal Office of Justice (FOJ) announced.