Washington DC

24 Nov 2021; MEMO: Apple yesterday said it had filed a lawsuit against Israel's NSO and its parent company OSY Technologies, in an effort to stop the spyware company from using any of its devices.

This comes after the US put the company on the trade blacklist after it was accused of supplying technology to foreign governments to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics and embassy workers.

23 Nov 2021; MEMO: The United States has urged Sudan to make more progress before it resumes $700 million in emergency assistance it had halted following October's military coup that ousted the civilian-led contingent of the government, the State Department said.

13 Nov 2021; MEMO: The United States urged Yemen's Houthi rebels to release an unspecified number of detained Yemeni local employees who work for the US embassy in the capital, Sana'a, the State Department says, Washington Times reports.

13 Nov 2021; MEMO: Gaza is still suffering "from a particularly difficult economic situation with very high unemployment and deteriorating social conditions", the World Bank warned in a report this week.

10 Nov 2021; MEMO: The US sharply denounced on Tuesday a visit from the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) top diplomat to Damascus and issued a veiled warning to regional states to carefully consider any effort to normalise relations with the Syrian regime.

UAE Foreign Minister, Abdullah bin Zayed, earlier on Tuesday led an Emirati delegation of senior officials to Damascus, where they were received by Bashar Al-Assad in what marks the first such visit since the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011.

09 Nov 2021; MEMO: US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has called on America to stop enabling the killing of Palestinian children by Israel. Her call follows the killing of a 13-year-old Palestinian boy by the Israeli army on Friday.

Tlaib is the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress. She condemned the killing of Mohammed Da'adas, a resident of the Askar refugee camp in Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

05 Nov 2021; AA: The administration of US President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered American companies to make sure employees are fully vaccinated or regularly tested for the coronavirus by Jan .4.

The new regulation applies to businesses that have 100 or more employees, according to the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

05 Nov 2021; MEMO: The UN said, on Thursday, that Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, spoke with the Sudanese army chief via telephone and reiterated his call for the release of all civilian detainees.

Guterres again called for the release of Prime Minister, Abdalla Hamdok, and other civilians arbitrarily detained in Sudan after a coup, the UN said in a statement regarding the call with Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan.

04 Nov 2021; MEMO: The United States, Britain, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates yesterday called for the "full and immediate" restoration of the civilian-led transitional institutions including the government in Sudan.

"We endorse the international community's serious concern with the situation in Sudan. We call for the full and immediate restoration of its civilian-led transitional government and institutions," the four nations, known as the Quad of Sudan, said in a joint statement released by the US Department of State.

04 Nov 2021; MEMO: The new US ambassador to Israel has pledged to fight the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, support the Abraham Accords, strengthen bonds with the occupation state and replenish its Iron Dome missile defence system.

Thomas R Nides was confirmed in the role on Wednesday. He served as deputy US secretary of state for management and resources under Hillary Clinton from 2011 to 2013.