The United States has no plan to ease sanctions or take other steps such as issuing an executive order about returning to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal before possible talks with Iran and major powers, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One as U.S. President Joe Biden flew to Michigan, Psaki said “there is no plan to take additional steps” on Iran in advance of having a “diplomatic conversation.”
The United States said on Thursday it was ready to talk to Iran about both nations returning to a 2015 pact that aimed to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, which Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump abandoned nearly three years ago.

The United States will keep tariffs imposed on Chinese goods by the former Trump administration in place for now, but will evaluate how to proceed after a thorough review, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told CNBC on Thursday.
“For the moment, we have kept the tariffs in place that were put in by the Trump administration … and we’ll evaluate going forward what we think is appropriate,” Yellen told the cable news network, adding that Washington expected Beijing to adhere to its commitments on trade.
Asked if tariffs worked, Yellen hesitated, then said, “We’ll look at that.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) released a statement on Friday calling for a “full investigation” into New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes.
Why it matters: Cuomo’s handling of nursing home deaths has been under scrutiny for months, but the backlash has become increasingly bipartisan after audio leaked of a top Cuomo aide saying a Democratic request for nursing homes data was rejected because the administration feared it could “be used against us” by federal investigators.
The big picture: The results of an investigation released last month by New York Attorney General Letitia James, also a Democrat, found that the Cuomo administration undercounted deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50%.

The number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide fell by 16 percent last week to 2.7 million, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.
The number of new deaths reported also fell 10% week-on-week, to 81,000, the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update, using figures up to Sunday.
Five of the six WHO regions of the world reported a double-digit percentage decline in new cases, with only the Eastern Mediterranean showing a rise, of seven percent.
New case numbers dropped 20% last week in Africa and in the Western Pacific, 18% in Europe, 16% in the Americas and 13% in southeast Asia.

A hacker is claiming to have stolen files from prominent law firm Jones Day, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The files were posted to the dark web, according to the Journal, and included some documents that were reviewed by the newspaper. One memo was reportedly addressed to a judge and marked “confidential mediation brief,” while another is a cover letter for “confidential documents.”
The Journal reported it couldn’t immediately confirm the documents’ authenticity.
The hacker told the newspaper that they first reached out to the law firm on Feb. 3 to inform it that its network had been hacked, but it hadn’t responded as of Tuesday.

The United States officially rejoined the Paris climate agreement on Friday, reaffirming its commitment to climate action as the administration of President Joe Biden plans drastic emissions cuts over the next decades.
One month after Biden took office, the world’s largest economy and second largest carbon emitter was formally back in the 2015 accord aimed at confronting the planet’s rising temperatures.
Since nearly 200 countries signed the 2015 pact, the US was the only country to exit. Former President Donald Trump took the step, claiming climate action would cost too much.
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Ford will only sell electric vehicles in Europe by 2030, it said Wednesday. The automaker said it will spend $1 billion to convert its factory in Cologne, Germany, into its first EV production line on the continent.
Ford says it will transition to EV-production gradually over the next decade. By 2024, the company’s entire commercial vehicle lineup will be “zero-emissions capable, all-electric or plug-in hybrid.” By mid-2026, Ford says “100 percent” of its passenger vehicle lineup will be the same. And by 2030, Ford expects two-thirds of its commercial vehicle sales to be all-electric or plug-in hybrid, while all of its passenger vehicles sold will be pure battery-electric.

No serious side effects have been recorded among dozens of adolescents under 16 years with pre-existing conditions after receiving an anti-COVID vaccination, according to Health Ministry statistics.
Israeli health providers monitored adolescents with known risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, severe lung and heart disease, and who were given prior authorization from their attending physician to be vaccinated.
Healthy under 16s are not yet eligible for the study.
The Health Ministry recommended vaccinating certain at-risk adolescents aged 12 to 15 against COVID-19 and is currently studying the possibility of also vaccinating children aged 6 to 12.