November 24, 2021

*) UN reducing footprint in Ethiopia amid growing alarm International alarm mounted over the escalating war in Ethiopia as Tigrayan rebels claimed to be edging closer to the capital Addis Ababa and more foreign citizens were told to leave. The United Nations said it had ordered the immediate evacuation of family members of international staff. France also advised its citizens to leave "without delay", following similar advisories by the US and the UK. *) Biden taps US gas reserves as energy costs soar US President Joe Biden is going to release emergency reserves of oil to address rising inflation in the world's largest economy. The US is releasing 50 million barrels of oil in coordination with other major consumers of crude. The unprecedented move should also help lower energy prices, which are up 250 percent since January. Washington has been calling on the international oil cartel OPEC and its allies to raise production, to meet growing demand. But those appeals have been ignored. *) 'Apple suing Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group Tech giant Apple announced it is suing Israel’s NSO Group, seeking to block the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire company from breaking into Apple products. Apple said NSO Group's spyware, called Pegasus, had been used to attack a small number of Apple customers worldwide. It's the latest blow to the hacking firm, which was recently blacklisted by the US Commerce Department and is currently being sued by social media giant Facebook. *) HRW: Belarus, Poland violating human rights at border The Human Rights Watch said both Poland and Belarus have committed "serious human rights violations” against migrants on their border. HRW researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 19 people, some of whom "had been pushed back, sometimes violently, by Polish border guards". In Belarus, they said that "violence, inhuman and degrading treatment and coercion" by Belarusian border guards were "commonplace". HRW added that this treatment "may in some cases constitute tor