Author: Steven Sahiounie

Azerbaijan has officially applied for BRICS membership, the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizada, said. “Azerbaijan has filed an official application for joining BRICS,” Azerbaijan’s Report news agency quoted him as saying. Baku’s intention to join BRICS was reflected in a joint declaration on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and China, which was signed on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana in early July. Apart from that, Azerbaijani parliament speaker, Sakhiba Gafarova, said at a plenary session of the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St. Petersburg on July 11 that her country wants to be a full-fledged BRICS…

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) held a meeting today chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas. During the meeting, the committee reviewed the President’s initiative which he announced before the Grand Turkish National Assembly. The initiative included his decision to go to the Gaza Strip with members of the Palestinian leadership. In his initiative, President Abbas called on the leaders of Arab and Islamic, the good people in the world and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to join him to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, calling on the UN Security Council to secure…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Anthony Blinken left Doha on August 20 empty handed. He had been pushing Israel and Hamas to come to a ceasefire agreement, but the negotiations appear to have once again failed to find peace for the people in Gaza, who have suffered over 40,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. The US supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his revenge attack on Gaza, which has been termed genocide by the UN. However, the US President Joe Biden administration has forcefully demanded that Netanyahu…

During a meeting today with the US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi stressed that the time has come to end the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, heed the voice of reason and wisdom and prioritize peace and diplomatic solutions, stressing the danger of expanding the scope of the conflict regionally which would have negative repercussions. According to Egypt’s Presidential Spokesman, Ahmed Fahmy, the meeting underscored the need to advance joint efforts to restore security and stability in the region. The Egyptian president said that stopping the bloodshed should be the key driver for all…

Türkiye’s Communications Directorate announced Monday that firefighting teams have responded to 306 forest and rural fires across the country over the past four days, successfully extinguishing 304 of them. In a statement shared on its social media account, the directorate praised the teams for their swift and effective response, referring to them as the “heroes of the forest.” “Our heroes of the forest have intervened in 306 forest and rural fires over the past four days. The teams, working tirelessly from both the air and the ground, have successfully extinguished 304 of these fires,” the statement said. Firefighters in Türkiye…

Blinken is set to hold talks with the Egyptian president and foreign minister in the coastal city of El Alamein following a visit to Israel, where he met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Afterwards, he will head to a meeting with Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Doha, the scene of ceasefire talks last week. Both Egypt and Qatar are working alongside the United States to broker a truce in the 10-month Gaza conflict. Blinken said Monday he had “a very constructive meeting” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who “confirmed to me that Israel accepts the bridging proposal”.…

King Abdullah II stated today that Jordan would not accept having the region’s future hostage to the policies of the extremist Israeli government. Abdullah II made his remarks during a meeting with political and media figures at Al Husseiniya Palace in Amman, according to a press statement issued by the Royal Hashemite Court (RHC). RHC said that the King highlighted Jordan’s efforts to reach comprehensive calm in the region, renewing his call on the international community to step up efforts in order to end the Israeli genocidal aggression on Gaza and unilateral measures in the West Bank, especially in Jerusalem…

Chinese State Council Premier Li Qiang arrived on an official visit to Moscow on Tuesday, a TASS correspondent reported. He will hold meetings with his Russian counterpart Mikhail Mishustin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Li is visiting Russia at Mishustin’s invitation. It is expected that the sides will discuss the prospects of developing the comprehensive partnership and expanding cooperation in several spheres, including energy and automotive industry, as well as sign a number of intergovernmental documents. The visit to Moscow is taking place on the year of the 75th anniversary of establishing bilateral diplomatic ties and will run until August…

India’s antitrust body has reached an initial assessment that the $8.5 billion India merger of Reliance and Walt Disney media assets harms competition due to their power over cricket broadcast rights, four sources told Reuters on Tuesday. In the biggest setback so far to their planned merger, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has privately told Disney and Reliance its view and asked the companies to explain why an investigation shouldn’t be ordered, one of the sources said. Reliance, Disney and CCI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. All sources declined to be named as the CCI process…

China will beef up its 2.88 trillion yuan social security fund, making it “bigger and stronger” to help support its rapidly aging population