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17 October 2023; MEMO: Nearly 1,000 US citizens and family members have departed Israel on State Department-sponsored charter flights and other transport options since Friday for Europe, a department spokesperson told Reuters yesterday.

The State Department said it had offered more than 4,000 seats on US government-chartered transport by air and sea to US citizens and immediate family but said the flights and other departure options have generally departed at half capacity or less.

16 October 2023; AA: Chinese and Russian foreign ministers met in Beijing and discussed relations between their countries and the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and Palestine.

Wang Yi hosted his counterpart Sergey Lavrov ahead of the third Belt and Road Forum for International (BRI) Cooperation.

Ahead of their meeting, Lavrov said: "We consider this project as an important part of promoting cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual benefit throughout the Eurasian continent."

16 October 2023; MEMO: Israel yesterday announced that it would stop its security exports to Colombia in response to statements by Colombian President Gustavo Petro, in which he likened Israel’s targeting of Gaza to the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat said that Colombian Ambassador to Israel Margarita Manjarrez had been summoned over “hostile and anti-Semitic statements” against the state of Israel made by Petro.

10 October 2023; AA: Three major labor strikes in the US have put the auto, health and entertainment industries in jeopardy of coming to a halt as union leaders continue to negotiate with corporate America.

"This is an unprecedented wave of labor strikes and labor protests," said Professor Kent Wong, director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Labor Center. "There is tremendous economic insecurity among the working class."

9 October 2023; MEMO: The new Israeli shekel (NIS) fell close to an eight-year low against the US dollar on Monday in the aftermath of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood led by the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement against the occupation state on Saturday. In trading today, the shekel was down more than 3 per cent against the dollar at 3.9581.

9 October 2023; MEMO: Swiss travel agencies on Monday began cancelling trips to Israel due to the ongoing tension in the region, Anadolu Agency reports.

This came after the Swiss Foreign Ministry issued a travel warning earlier in the day.

It is not recommended to travel to Israel for tourist trips and any other travel that is not of an emergency nature

the Ministry said in a statement.

08 October 2023; MEMO: Turkiye will host the third international gathering aimed at building support for the Global Peace Summit that Ukraine plans to hold later this year, Bloomberg reports.

According to the report, the meeting is tentatively scheduled for later in October in Istanbul and will follow similar gatherings in Denmark in June and in Saudi Arabia in August, the news outlet said.

06 October 2023; MEMO: A Turkish-flagged general cargo ship that was sailing on Thursday in the Black Sea en route to Ukraine’s Izmail port did not sustain damage from an explosion, Turkiye’s maritime authority and the ship’s captain told Reuters on Friday.

“An explosion occurred 15-20 meters behind the Kafkametler ship en route to Izmail port from Batumi port while it was cruising off the coast of Romania/Sulina (port),” the authority said.

04 October 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia and Russia today said they were continuing voluntary oil cuts to year-end as tightening supply and rising demand support oil prices, Reuters reports.

The Saudi and Russian statements come hours before a ministerial monitoring panel of the OPEC+ group of leading oil producers convenes online.

04 October 2023; MEMO: France has agreed to deliver military equipment to Armenia, following Azerbaijan’s recapture of the Nagorno-Karabakh region last month.