USA

12 May 2023; MEMO: The United States stands by Israel's right to defend itself, the American ambassador to Israel, Tom Nides, announced yesterday.

"Concerned about the continuing rocket launches today," Nides said on Twitter, referring to recent rockets that were fired from the besieged Gaza Strip.

The US envoy added that his country was working to achieve a "quick de-escalation."

May 11 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the bribery conviction of Joseph Percoco, an ex-aide to Democratic former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a ruling that further limits the ability of federal prosecutors to pursue corruption cases.

The justices ruled 9-0 in favor of Joseph Percoco, Cuomo's former executive deputy secretary who was charged in 2016 as part of a corruption crackdown by federal prosecutors in Manhattan centered on the halls of the state capital of Albany.

WASHINGTON, May 11 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced a bill on Thursday intended to bar the American government from recognizing Bashar al-Assad as Syria's president and to enhance Washington's ability to impose sanctions - a warning to other countries normalizing relations with Assad.

The bill, first reported by Reuters, would prohibit the government from recognizing or normalizing relations with any Syrian government led by Assad, who is under U.S. sanctions, and expands on the Caesar Act, which imposed a tough round of sanctions on Syria in 2020.

HOUSTON, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Several thousands of U.S. troops are being deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border, facing a chaotic surge of migrants as Title 42, a public health policy that allows swiftly expelling migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic, comes to an end on Thursday.

The Title 42 policy, introduced in March 2020 under then U.S. President Donald Trump and to end at 11:59 p.m. ET Thursday, has turned migrants back to Mexico more than 2.5 million times without letting them request asylum, according to the latest federal data.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans were on track Thursday to pass a sweeping bill to build more U.S.-Mexico border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers, creating a hard-line counter to President Joe Biden’s policies just as migrants are amassing along the border with the end of coronavirus pandemic restrictions.

The bill has virtually no chance of becoming law. Democrats, who have a narrow hold on the Senate, have decried the aggressive measures in the bill as “cruel” and “anti-immigrant,” and Biden has already promised he would veto it.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s primetime return to CNN Wednesday for the first time since 2016 felt like a throwback: Trump with the long, twisting answers; the interviewer at times struggling to fact-check him or return his focus to the question at hand; and then, eventually, both talking over each other as Trump flings insults her way.

Wednesday’s town hall in New Hampshire was the first time in years that Trump faced prolonged questioning from an outlet outside the friendly confines of conservative media outlets of his choosing.

UNITED NATIONS, May 10 (APP):A “silent emergency” that is claiming one million tiny lives born premature each year requires concerted action to swiftly improve children’s health and survival, according to a new report released by UN agencies and partners on Wednesday.

Almost 45 percent of the 13.4 million pre-term births in 2020 happened in five countries — Pakistan, India, Nigeria, China and Ethiopia — the report, entitled, ‘Born too soon: Decade of action on preterm birth’, said.

WASHINGTON, May 10 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) admitted negotiations with the Argentine Government were still going on toward a redesigning of the country’s program in light of the present drought, while Casa Rosada sources agreed that “the conversations” were “progressing constructively.”

9 May 2023; MEMO: UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, said on Tuesday that Israeli occupation killing of civilians in Gaza "is unacceptable."

In a statement, a copy of which was sent to MEMO, he said: "I condemn the deaths of civilians in the Israeli airstrikes. This is unacceptable."

He added: "I am deeply alarmed by developments in Gaza after Israel launched a military operation this morning targeting members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement (PIJ)."

UNITED NATIONS, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The fighting in Sudan, while having a devastating impact on the Sudanese population, is also profoundly affecting the bilateral relationship between the country and South Sudan, a United Nations envoy said on Tuesday.