US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Denmark on Monday for talks on climate change, Arctic policy and Russia as calls grew for the Biden administration to take a tougher, more active stance on spiraling Israeli-Palestinian violence.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to Europe and North Atlantic islands next week to put the Biden administration’s stamp on climate change policy in the Arctic and warn Russia against interference in the United States, Ukraine and elsewhere, the State Department said on Friday, AP reported. Blinken will visit Denmark, Iceland and Greenland starting on Sunday to stress the US commitment to green technology and preserving environmental stability in the Arctic, the department said. 

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. “Today is a great day for America,” President Joe Biden said during a Rose Garden address heralding the new guidance, an event where he and his staff went without masks.

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday that advances federal cybersecurity capabilities and encourages improvements in digital security standards across the private sector which has been hit by a string of cyber incidents, news wires reported. The order establishes a series of initiatives designed to better equip federal agencies with cybersecurity tools.

Brazilian states halted vaccination of pregnant women on Tuesday after a death in Rio de Janeiro led health regulator Anvisa to warn against the use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine for expecting mothers, Reuters reports.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday said it expanded the emergency use authorization for the use for the BioNTech/Pfizer coronavirus vaccination to include children and adolescents aged 12 to 15, dpa reported. The vaccine by German vaccine maker BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer had previously only been approved in the country for people aged 16 and older.

The cyberextortion attempt that has forced the shutdown of a vital US pipeline was carried out by a criminal gang known as DarkSide that cultivates a Robin Hood image of stealing from corporations and giving a cut to charity, two people close to the investigation said Sunday.

US President Joe Biden will join a meeting by video link of presidents of countries on NATO's eastern flank being held on Monday in the Romanian capital, according to the offices of the Romanian and Polish presidents, news wires reported. The presidents gathering represent the so-called Bucharest Nine, a group of the easternmost members of the alliance.

In an interview with BBC radio broadcast on Thursday the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken downplayed any prospect of an imminent trade deal with a post-Brexit Britain, news wires reported.

The US showed a rare shift in its policy related to defense of intellectual rights over the Covid-19 vaccines, BBC reported. In a move which was considered surprising by many, the administration of the White House backed calls from many organizations including the WTO to grant know-how rights and patents related to production of vaccines to poor countries in a bid to boost the output and the rollout of jabs.