USA

13 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israel has "legalised" nine colonial outposts in the occupied West Bank, turning them into official settlements. The decision, which is said to be the first legalisation of such outposts by the Israeli government since 2012, has caused further irritation in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Monday defended the shootdowns of three unidentified objects in as many days even as it acknowledged that officials had no indication the objects were intended for surveillance in the same manner as the high-altitude Chinese balloon that traversed American airspace earlier this month.

14 Feb 2023; MEMO: The US Office of Palestinian Affairs in Jerusalem yesterday condemned the killing of a Palestinian by an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, calling for a "thorough and transparent investigation" into the incident.

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 (APP): The World Health Organization (WHO), a Geneva-based UN agency, has launched a $43 million appeal to support earthquake response in Syria and Turkiye where the death toll has reportedly climbed to more than 33,000 people Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced.

The amount is set to increase as the magnitude of the disaster becomes clearer, he said, speaking during a press conference from the Syrian capital, Damascus, according to a UN press release issued at UN Headquarters in New York on Sunday afternoon.

WASHINGTON, February 13. /TASS/: Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg believes that the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine marked the expulsion of European nations from ‘the Garden of Eden’.

WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. military fighter jets on Sunday shot down an octagonal object over Lake Huron, the Pentagon said, the latest incident since a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon put North American security forces on high alert.

It was the fourth flying object to be shot down over North America by a U.S. missile in a little more than a week. China's foreign ministry said it had no information on the latest three flying objects shot down by the United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) — After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.

The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube or TikTok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.

11 Feb 2023; MEMO: The US announced on Thursday easing its sanctions imposed on Syria to allow the flow of humanitarian aid to reach bereaved Syrians after the deadly earthquakes that hit parts of Turkiye and Syria.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. fighter jet shot down an “unidentified object” over Lake Huron on Sunday on orders from President Joe Biden. It was the fourth such downing in eight days and the latest military strike in an extraordinary chain of events over U.S. airspace that Pentagon officials believe has no peacetime precedent.

Part of the reason for the repeated shootdowns is a “heightened alert” following a spy balloon from China that emerged over U.S. airspace in late January, Gen. Glen VanHerck, head of NORAD and U.S. Northern Command, said in a briefing with reporters.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans on Saturday narrowly picked an activist who has promoted unfounded election conspiracies and promised a shakeup to lead the Kansas GOP for the next two years, following weeks of infighting that mirrors the acrimony in the party across the U.S.