🇺🇸🤝🇹🇼 — 📰 Reuters: Exclusive: New Taiwan weapons package to be announced soon - US officials
— "he United States is expected to announce as early as Friday that it will provide Taiwan with military assistance worth more than $300 million, two U.S. officials told Reuters, a move likely to anger China.

Congress authorized up to $1 billion worth of Presidential Drawdown Authority weapons aid for Taiwan in the 2023 budget.

One official, speaking on the condition anonymity, said the package is expected to be worth around $330 million.

The White House declined to comment.
The formal announcement is not expected to include a list of weapon systems being provided"

Link
https://archive.is/BoM5d

🇹🇼🇺🇸🤑📃 — 📰 Focus Taiwan: Taiwan's Legislature clears initial trade deal with U.S.
— " Lawmakers on Wednesday unanimously passed an initial agreement reached under the United States-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century that focused on basic trade facilitation and transparency standards and procedures.

Thanking the legislators for their support, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) expressed her hope on Facebook that the agreement could create more business opportunities for Taiwan and contribute to a more secure global supply chain.

Citing Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁), Cabinet spokesman Lin Tze-luen (林子倫) said the passage, which followed the U.S. Senate's approval of the pact on July 18, should pave the way for stronger bilateral trade relations.

Taiwan and the U.S. signed the first set of terms under the initiative on June 1, which was focused on making customers and border procedures and regulatory practices more efficient and make bilateral trade easier, faster, and more transparent."

Link
https://archive.is/7i9V7

🇺🇸❌🇭🇰 — 📰 Washington Post: Biden, testing Xi, will bar Hong Kong’s leader from economic summit
— "The White House has decided it will bar Hong Kong’s top government official from attending a major economic summit in the United States this fall, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the matter, in the latest test of President Biden’s bid to reset relations with China.

Chief Executive John Lee, along with 10 other Hong Kong and Chinese officials, was sanctioned by Washington in 2020 after implementing a national security law, imposed by Beijing, that enabled the targeting of pro-democracy leaders, tarnished the reputation of the courts and earned international condemnation as leaders sought to silence dissent.

Lee, then Hong Kong’s security chief, was elevated last year to chief executive, handpicked by Beijing to continue what critics say is a broader campaign of repression in the once-semiautonomous city. He has helped execute Beijing’s reimagining of the territory, where institutions from schools to the media now operate under new red lines that have eroded freedoms."

https://archive.ph/X2gIg
Link

🇸🇦❌🇩🇰 — Royal Saudi Foreign Ministry: The Kingdom handed over to the Chargé d’Affaires of the Danish Embassy a protest note calling for an end to actions that violate international laws and provocative actions against Islam

🇫🇷❌🇳🇪 — French President Macron: We condemn in the strongest terms Niger's dangerous coup against the region

🇷🇺☦️📹 — 🇷🇺 RIA Novosti: Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill in Moscow led a procession with the relics of Prince Vladimir.

Today marks the 1035th anniversary of the Baptism of Rus'.

https://t.me/rian_ru/210400

🇷🇺🤝🌍 — 📰 Reuters quoting the Russian Foreign Ministry: 90% of issues related to the debts of African countries to Russia have been settled