USA

03 March 2024; MEMO: The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF warned Sunday of rising child deaths in the Gaza Strip as Israeli offensive and siege on the territory continues, Anadolu reports.

At least 15 Palestinian children died from dehydration and malnutrition at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip as Israel tightened a crippling blockade on the area, according to local health authorities.

26 February 2024; AA: US-based online travel platform Expedia said Monday that it plans to cut 1,500 jobs globally as it evaluates the appropriate allocation of its resources.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force has died after he set himself ablaze outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., while declaring that he “will no longer be complicit in genocide.”

The 25-year-old airman, Aaron Bushnell, of San Antonio, Texas, died from his injuries, the Metropolitan Police Department said Monday.

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — United States President Joe Biden said Israel would be willing to halt its war on Hamas in Gaza during the upcoming Muslim fasting month of Ramadan if a deal is reached to release some of the hostages held by the militants.

21 February 2024; MEMO: Republican Representative Andy Ogles told activists who were calling for a ceasefire at Congress that “I think we should kill them all”, in reference to Palestinian children in Gaza.

The shocking response, experts have said, clearly indicates the extent of the United States’ responsibility for the crime of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

23 February 2024; MEMO: Talks with Egypt to boost its International Monetary Fund loan programme are making excellent progress, the IMF said yesterday, saying that Egypt needs a “very comprehensive support package” to deal with economic challenges, including pressures from the war in Gaza, Reuters reports.

26 February 2024; MEMO: UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, warned today that a full-scale Israeli military operation in Rafah would deliver a death blow to aid initiatives in Gaza, where humanitarian assistance remains “completely insufficient”.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said the kingdom was "very worried" that tensions in the Red Sea amid attacks by Yemen's Houthis and U.S. strikes on Houthi targets could spiral out of control and escalate the conflict in the region.

"I mean, of course, we are very worried. I mean, you know, we are in a very difficult and dangerous time in the region, and that's why we are calling for de-escalation," Prince Faisal bin Farhan told CNN 'Fareed Zakaria GPS' in an interview that will be aired on Sunday.

HOUSTON, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed and two others injured after a "very chaotic" shooting early Sunday morning at a short-term rental home in the Huston area, U.S. state Texas, authorities said.

There was a gathering with about 10 to 20 people in their 20s at the rental home in Katy, a suburban city of Houston. A quarrel broke out and led to the shooting, leaving at least five people shot, said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.

A man and a woman died at the scene, and one died in hospital, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama is preparing to use a new method of execution: nitrogen gas.

Kenneth Eugene Smith, who survived the state’s previous attempt to put him to death by lethal injection in 2022, is scheduled to be put to death Thursday by nitrogen hypoxia. If carried out, it would the first new method of execution since lethal injection was introduced in 1982.

The state maintains that nitrogen gas will cause unconsciousness quickly but critics have likened the never-used method of execution to human experimentation.