American journalist Nathan Robinson, the founder and editor in chief of the "Current Affairs" Magazine, has revealed that the UK's "The Guardian" newspaper fire him as a columnist in the newspaper's American edition after a tweet criticizing the US military aid to the Israeli occupation entity.

In an article titled "How the Media Cracks Down on Critics of Israel", recently published in the Current Affairs magazine, Robinson said that it is widely recognized that critics of Israel, no matter how well-founded the criticism, are routinely punished by both public and private institutions for their speech.

He added that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has documented a pattern by which “those who seek to protest, boycott, or criticize the Israeli government are being silenced.”

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has called on the international community to secure 1.5 billion US dollars to finance its basic services for registered Palestinian refugees in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

According to a press release published on its website, UNRWA said that of the required $1.5 billion, $ 806 million are needed for core services, such as education, health, relief and social services, protection and infrastructure and camp improvement. Emergency humanitarian assistance that UNRWA provides in response to the devastating effects of blockade and occupation in the occupied Palestinian territory requires $ 231 million.

US President Joe Biden wants to close the Guantanamo Bay prison for "terror suspects" before the end of his term, the White House said Friday, echoing an unfulfilled campaign promise from Barack Obama's administration, according to AFP.

Asked at a press conference about a possible closure of the prison in Cuba during Biden's tenure, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, "That certainly is our goal and our intention."

She said the administration was working through the National Security Council to "assess the current state of play that the Biden administration has -- well, we've inherited from the previous administration."

In his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump expressed willingness to keep the Guantanamo prison open and "fill it with bad guys." The Republican retained this position once elected.

However, some detainees were promised their release from Guantanamo under his Democratic predecessor Obama, but he never succeeded in working out a compromise with Congress. Biden was Obama's vice president.