Barack Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama said on July 18 that a surface-to-air missile fired from territory that is controlled by Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine was responsible for shooting down a Malaysian passenger plane on Thursday. 

The United States and Europe strengthened sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine Wednesday, with President Barack Obama taking his first direct swipes in the finance, military and energy sectors of the Russian economy.
      

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart have laid the groundwork for an extension of a July 20 deadline to strike a historic nuclear deal after intense talks in Vienna.

A Western diplomat went as far as to say that it was now "highly probable" Iran and world powers would agree to such a move, and that the extension would be months not weeks.

Israel pounded Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on July 12 for a fifth day, killing nine people including two disabled women according to medics, and showed no sign of pausing despite international pressure to negotiate a ceasefire.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on July 11, raising the toll in four days of violence to 100, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said July 10 ties with Israel would not return to normal unless the Netanyahu government ceased its deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Israeli warplanes kept up deadly raids on Gaza July 11 but failed to stop Palestinian militants firing rockets across the border, as the United States offered to help negotiate a truce.

With the violence growing worse, U.S. President Barack Obama in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was willing to broker a ceasefire.

Top US and Chinese officials meet in Beijing to discuss the cooperation between the world’s two biggest economies.

Regular Internet users, including Americans, far outnumber legally-targeted foreigners in electronic communications intercepted by the National Security Agency, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
      
The Post based their assertion on a four-month study of a large cache of NSA-intercepted electronic data provided by fugitive NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
      

Celebrating the ethnic diversity of America, President Barack Obama said more than two dozen foreign-born military members who became U.S. citizens at the White House on the Fourth of July are vivid reminders that welcoming immigrants "is central to our way of life."