Biden administration

In a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people on Thursday, allowing them to stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings, AP reported.

The major U.S. pipeline network forced offline by a cyber attack began to reopen on May 12, its operator said, after a five-day shutdown prompted motorists to frantically stock up on gasoline and some gas stations on the U.S. east coast to close.

But Colonial Pipeline warned that it will take "several days" before supplies return to normal.

Turkey has been making preparations for a meeting to be held between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of a NATO summit, Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın has said, noting that Ankara reiterates its proposal of making negotiations on the problem of the F-35 program.

Turkey's communications director criticized the U.S. early on May 12 for considering Israeli attacks on Palestinians self-defense.

"Massacring civilians. Forcing Palestinians to leave their homes and occupying their lands. Attacking mosques. Murdering innocent children. Since when are all those atrocities considered self-defense?" Fahrettin Altun said on Twitter.

US FDA expanded the emergency use authorization for Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine including people ages 12 to 15.

Geoffrey Pyatt is one of the longest serving US ambassadors to Athens - his fifth anniversary is on 19 May - and his tenure has coincided with some of the more difficult moments in recent history from the country's economic precariousness to Greek-Turkish tensions last summer that brought the two countries to the brink of a military clash at sea.

 U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Ukraine this week reflects the Biden administration's concern about the danger of Russian aggression against its western neighbor. Though President Vladimir Putin has temporarily eased tensions by ordering Russian troops to pull back from the border, he remains determined to undermine the Ukrainian government's control over its own territory.

North Korea on May 2 warned the United States will face "a very grave situation" because President Joe Biden "made a big blunder" in his recent speech by calling the North a security threat and revealing his intent to maintain a hostile policy against it.

The U.S. Justice Department announced on April 21 an investigation into the Minneapolis police, a day after a white former officer was convicted of murdering George Floyd, signaling the Biden administration's intention to use federal powers to clean up systemic police abuse.

Climate activists rallied in New York's Union Square on Monday with a message for the Biden administration: Time is running out, but it is not too late.

Along with demands to end fossil fuel reliance, activist leaders unveiled an addition to the digital «climate clock» displayed on a building above the square since September.