16 October 2023; AA: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Sunday that if Western countries like the US want to go to war with Russia, it would be "completely different" from the special military operation in Ukraine.

Putin made assessments about the Russia-Ukraine war and Russia-China relations in an interview with Russian state broadcaster Rossiya.

Speaking about Ukraine's counteroffensive, Putin said it has “completely failed.”

LONDON (AP) — A lawyer for Donald Trump told a London judge Monday that the ex-president plans to prove that a discredited report by a former British spy that contained “shocking and scandalous claims” that he was compromised by Russians in his first bid for the presidency was wrong and harmed his reputation.

Trump has sued the company founded by Christopher Steele, who created a dossier in 2016 that contained rumors and uncorroborated allegations about Trump that erupted in a political storm just before he was inaugurated.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal prosecutor on Monday pressed the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington to impose a gag order aimed at reining in the former president’s diatribes against likely witnesses and others, saying the restrictions would not impact his abilities to campaign.

In asking U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose the narrow gag order, special counsel Jack Smith’s team has accused the Republican of using increasingly incendiary rhetoric to try to undermine the public’s confidence in the justice system and taint the jury pool.

16 October 2023; MEMO: Colombian President Gustavo Petro yesterday announced his intention to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which is suffering from a harsh siege as a result of the Israeli aggression.

Petro denounced “the genocide” carried out by Israeli occupation aircraft in Gaza, demanding the protection of health sector workers. He went on to stress that systematic attacks on civilians and genocide must be stopped and international law adhered to.

WASHINGTON, Oct 15 (Reuters) - The Pentagon has deployed two aircraft carriers -- and their supporting ships -- to the eastern Mediterranean since the attacks on Israel.

The ships are meant as a deterrent to ensure the conflict does not expand, but bring a significant amount of power to a region that already hosts a number of U.S. military ships, planes and troops.

FORD CARRIER

The Gerald R. Ford carrier, along with supporting ships, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean early last week.

16 October 2023; MEMO: The Egyptian National Security Council, headed by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, yesterday decided to continue contacts with international and regional partners in pursuit of de-escalation and to stop the targeting of civilians in the Gaza Strip.

During a meeting headed by Al-Sisi, the council discussed the regional situation and the military escalation in the Gaza Strip.

WASHINGTON/TEL AVIV, Oct 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's White House is wrestling with a host of thorny security and political challenges as officials plot a potential trip to Israel that may hold longer-term diplomatic advantages for Biden.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu invited Biden, who has been outspoken in his support for Israel, Washington's closest Middle East ally, still reeling after a devastating cross-border assault by Palestinian Hamas militants on Oct. 7.

14 October 2023; MEMO: The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has issued Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with a stark warning that UK government officials could be individually liable for their role in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes. Sunak has been issued with the notice of intention to prosecute UK government officials, for their role in providing military, economic and political support to Israel, which has aided Israel’s perpetration of war crimes.

16 October 2023; MEMO: A landlord in Chicago, Illinois, killed a 6-year-old boy and seriously wounded his mother in an attack motivated by anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiments related to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) expressed shock and called for an end to Islamophobic and anti-Palestinian rhetoric.

The young boy was brutally stabbed 26 times, while his mother suffered over a dozen stab wounds.

16 October 2023; MEMO: France’s broadcasting watchdog, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), has asked Eutelsat, Europe’s leading satellite operator to take down the Al-Aqsa Satellite Channel, which is affiliated with the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas,  after pressure from the French government, Eutelsat said.

14 October 2023; MEMO: Turkiye’s foreign minister on Saturday met with the Arab League head in Cairo during his visit to Egypt, Anadolu reports.

“Minister of Foreign Affairs Hakan Fidan met with Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, in Cairo,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on X.

Fidan is on two-day official visit to Cairo at the invitation of his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry.

14 October 2023; MEMO: Arab publishing bodies have withdrawn from a German book festival after a planned award to a Palestinian author was scrapped, the National has reported.