North America

06 June 2024; MEMO: The UN General Assembly, on Thursday, elected five non-permanent members to the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2025-2026 term.

Somalia, Pakistan, Panama, Greece and Denmark won elections at the General Assembly.

Somalia received 179 votes, Pakistan 182, Panama 183, Greece 182 and Denmark 184, meeting the criterion of obtaining two-thirds of the votes to replace Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland.

07 June 2024; MEMO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has notified Israel’s Defence Attache in the United States, Major General Hidai Zilberman, of his decision to add Israel to the blacklist of countries and organisations harming children in conflict zones.

LOS ANGELES, Jun 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – A lingering heat wave continued to scorch the south-western United States this weekend, bringing record-breaking temperatures and leaving millions under heat advisories.

The intense heat is the first major heat wave of this year, and has lingered over the region for several days, with some areas experiencing their hottest days ever recorded in the year.

SACRAMENTO, Jun 9 (NNN-XINHUA) – The U.S. state of California saw over 52,000 people die prematurely in a decade, due to smoke from wildfires, according to a new study.

The study, published in Science Advances, attributed an estimated number of 52,480 to 55,710 premature deaths to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) pollution, caused by wildfires, from 2008 to 2018, which translated to an economic impact of 432 billion to 456 billion U.S. dollars.

UNITED NATIONS, June 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States announced a draft Security Council resolution supporting the Israel-Hamas ceasefire plan outlined by US Pres Joe Biden last week, urging Hamas to accept it.

“Numerous leaders and governments, including in the region, have endorsed this plan,” said US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

The draft text “welcomes the new deal announced on May 31, and calls upon Hamas to accept it fully and implement its terms without delay and without condition.”

28 May 2024; MEMO: With the aim of “genocide prevention by third states, companies and civil society actors” in Gaza, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) has released a detailed report exposing corporate and state actors that are supplying jet fuel to the Israeli military and examines the legal ramifications of their actions.

29 May 2024; MEMO: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) yesterday announced that it had received a request from Mexico to join the genocide case filed by South Africa against Israel due to the war on the Gaza Strip.

According to the court’s statement, Mexico has invoked Article 63 of the ICJ statute and submitted a declaration of intervention in the case concerning the Application of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip.

29 May 2024; MEMO: Israel’s Channel 13 said yesterday that an imminent UN resolution is being prepared that will condemn the occupying state and consider the Israeli occupation army “an organisation that kills children,” stressing that there series of discussions are taking place in the Netanyahu government to respond to it. This comes at a time when Washington confirmed that it fears the expansion of Israel’s international isolation.

22 May 2024; AA: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the US will "take action" against a contentious bill adopted last week by the former Soviet republic of Georgia’s parliament, which triggered mass protests.

Tehran, IRNA - Yemen’s Houthis have weapons that can reach as far as the Mediterranean Sea, a senior US defense official said.

IRNA reported citing Bloomberg on Thursday that the US government is concerned about the Houthis in Yemen having the capability to expand their attacks on shipping from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden to the Mediterranean Sea.

An official, who requested anonymity, revealed that the Houthis have access to advanced weaponry and have deployed anti-ship ballistic missiles in an unprecedented manner.