Washington DC

28 Mar 2023; MEMO: The US Senate voted overwhelmingly on Monday to advance legislation to repeal two decades-old authorisations for past wars in Iraq, as Congress pushed to reassert its role over deciding whether to send troops into combat, Reuters reports.

The vote was 65 to 28 to limit debate on the measure, more than the 60 votes required in the 100-member Senate, paving the way for a vote on passage later this week. All 28 "no" votes were from Republicans.

22 Mar 2023; MEMO: Washington: US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, warned on Wednesday that Tunisia urgently needs to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, after the European Union expressed concern about the deteriorating political and economic situation in this country.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: For the first time in US history, sympathy for Palestinians has overtaken sympathy for Israelis among Democrats, according to the latest Gallup poll. Nearly half of Democrats — 49 per cent — have greater sympathy for Palestinians compared with only 38 per cent for Israel.

22 Mar 2023; MEMO: The US State Department's annual human rights report adopted the Israeli occupation government's account of the assassination of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh, and failed to mention the death of an American citizen after he was arrested by Israeli forces last year.

18 Mar 2023; AA: Former US President Donald Trump and his family failed to report foreign gifts worth nearly $300,000 during his presidency, according to a report by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released on Friday.

More than 100 unreported foreign gifts include items from Chinese President Xi Jinping, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other foreign government officials.

15 Mar 2023; MEMO: US senators have introduced a bipartisan resolution that could force the President to make a report on Saudi Arabia's human rights record, providing a new strategy to potentially cause the government to reassess its security assistance to its Gulf ally.

15 Mar 2023; MEMO: The White House, on Tuesday, welcomed the "landmark" deal between Saudi Arabia and the Boeing Company, saying it will support US jobs and marked a milestone in cooperation between Saudi Arabia and American industry, Reuters reports.

Two Saudi airlines agreed to buy 78 Boeing 787 Dreamliners and took options to buy another 43.

13 Mar 2023; MEMO: The man responsible for leading the resignation of 15 members of the Carter Centre's Board of Councillors in 2007, over former US President Jimmy Carter's criticism of Israel has announced his apology to the ailing figure, admitting that Carter was right about Israel becoming an apartheid state.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: A resolution to withdraw US forces from Syria throughout this year was defeated in the House of Representatives yesterday, with the vast majority voting to keep troops in the north-east of the embattled country to prevent a revival of Daesh.

9 Mar 2023; MEMO: The United States has released a Saudi Arabian engineer who was imprisoned for more than 20 years at Guantanamo Bay military prison, Al Jazeera reports.

According to the report, the US Department of Defence said that Ghassan Al Sharbi, 48, was returned to Saudi Arabia after a review board determined, in February 2022, that his detention "was no longer necessary to protect against a continuing significant threat to the national security of the United States".