Washington DC

31 Dec 2021; MEMO: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has rejected applications from hundreds of Afghans seeking temporary entry into the United States on humanitarian grounds, Anadolu reported.

Media outlets have reported that hundreds of Afghans who were separated from their families and were threatened by the Taliban in recent weeks had applied for humanitarian visas to move to the United States, but their requests were rejected.

AP: The U.S. flu season has arrived on schedule after taking a year off, with flu hospitalizations rising and two child deaths reported.

Last year’s flu season was the lowest on record, likely because COVID-19 measures — school closures, distancing, masks and canceled travel — prevented the spread of influenza, or because the coronavirus somehow pushed aside other viruses.

“This is setting itself up to be more of a normal flu season,” said Lynnette Brammer, who tracks flu-like illnesses for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said Monday the nation should consider a vaccination mandate for domestic air travel, signaling a potential embrace of an idea the Biden administration has previously eschewed, as COVID-19 cases spike.

Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief science adviser on the pandemic response, said such a mandate might drive up the nation’s lagging vaccination rate as well as confer stronger protection on flights, for which federal regulations require all those age 2 and older to wear a mask.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Monday cut isolation restrictions for asymptomatic Americans who catch the coronavirus from 10 to five days, and similarly shortened the time that close contacts need to quarantine.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said the guidance is in keeping with growing evidence that people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the two days before and three days after symptoms develop.

The decision also was driven by a recent surge in COVID-19 cases, propelled by the omicron variant.

22 Dec 2021; MEMO: Flawed intelligence has resulted in thousands of civilian deaths from US airstrikes in the Middle East, confidential military documents have revealed. Documents obtained by the New York Times from the US Department of Defence reveal over 1,300 reports which show that strikes by unmanned aerial vehicles — drones — caused more civilian casualties than were previously admitted, as a result of "deeply flawed intelligence".

20 Dec 2021; MEMO: Former US President Donald Trump has said that Evangelical Christians of the United States love Israel more than American Jews, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid revealed on Friday.

"There are people in this country that are Jewish that no longer love Israel," Ravid reported Trump saying, according to the Jerusalem Post. "The Evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country."

18 Dec 2021; MEMO: US Senator Rand Paul voted on Wednesday to block another attempt to provide Israel with $1 billion to replenish its missile defence system – the Iron dome, The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.

The Times of Israel said that the Democrats came under fire from pro-Israel groups in early October after House leadership briefly delayed a vote on the bill amid opposition from a handful of progressive members.

17 Dec 2021; MEMO: The United States has backtracked on its pledge to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to reopen its consulate in occupied East Jerusalem, the Times of Israel revealed yesterday.

The Israeli daily said that it has been seven months since the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken notified PA President Mahmoud Abbas of the Biden administration's plan to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem. No progress has since been made on the plan.

16 Dec 2021; MEMO: The US Senate passed a bill Thursday that bans goods from China's Muslim majority Xinjiang region produced with forced labour, Anadolu Agency reported.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act unanimously cleared the upper chamber of Congress. It cleared the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The main sponsor of the bill, Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from the state of Florida, hailed the passage on Twitter.

15 Dec 2021; MEMO: The Head of the United Nations has reiterated the importance of cross-border aid to north-west Syria as essential for millions of people, as the authorisation to use the last border crossing is set to expire next month.

In a confidential internal report obtained by the news agency AFP, yesterday, the UN's Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said that "Cross-border assistance remains life-saving for millions of people in need in north-west Syria."