Author: Steven Sahiounie

Bill Gates’ visit to China is his first to the country in four years. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday after his foundation pledged $50 million to help Chinese efforts to fight malaria and tuberculosis, as per Chinese media. “On June 16, President Xi Jinping met the American Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation co-chairperson Bill Gates in Beijing,” state broadcaster CCTV said. Calling Bill Gates an “old friend”, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said China had always placed its hopes in the American people. “We have always placed our hopes on the American people, and hoped for continued friendship…

Syrian Finance Minister Kanaan Yaghi says Damascus intends to apply to join BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Syria intends to apply to join the BRICS alliance, the bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, as well as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Finance Minister Kanaa Yahi said Thursday. There are also plans to open a SberBank branch in Syria, Yaghi told Russian news agency Sputnik during an interview. Wang Zhimin, the head of the China Research Institute of Modernization and Globalization, told Sputnik that 13 countries have expressed their desire to join the BRICS alliance. “Everyone knows that the idea of ​​’BRICS+’…

Viktor Orban has repeatedly said that had Trump remained in the White House for a second term, the armed conflict in Ukraine would have been avoided Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is confident that former US President Donald Trump, if he wins the 2024 election, would be able to achieve a settlement of the conflict in Ukraine. “There is a man in the West who would be able to end this war and make peace. That man is Donald Trump,” Orban told Kossuth radio on Friday. He stressed that “Hungary would be interested in seeing an advocate of peace at…

Mikhail Podoliak says Ukraine’s only plan is to launch a brutal offensive to reach its 1991 borders Ukraine currently has only one plan, which is a campaign to kill the maximum number of Russians, Mikhail Podoliak, an advisor to the chief of President Vladimir Zelensky’s office, said on the air during a telemarathon on Thursday. “There is only one plan: the most brutal advance with the maximum killing of Russians on this route,” he said, noting that Kiev “can’t just stop somewhere and say ‘alright, let’s think and talk about something now.’“ “The only possible scenario for Ukraine is to reach its…

Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade announced that the two countries are determined to work quickly to implement measures aimed at strengthening the presence of Iranian businesses in Cuba. During his visit to Havana, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi signed 6 agreements with his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel in an effort to strengthen Iranian-Cuban cooperation in different fields. The signed agreements include comprehensive cooperation in foreign relations and political consultations, agreements in the field of customs, the exchange of information, and the development of cadres, in addition to the field of communications and technology, and an agreement between the ministries of…

The humanitarian situation continues to rapidly deteriorate. Fighting in Sudan raged on into a third month Thursday as the reported death toll exceeded 2,000 and after a state governor was murdered in the remote Darfur region. Sudan has plunged into chaos since the clashes erupted on April 15 between forces of rival generals — General Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces and Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF). ‘Our life has changed’ The fighting has driven 2.2 million people from their homes, including 528,000 who have fled to neighboring countries, as per the International Organization for Migration. “In our…

“We realize that the extra foodstuffs that we have, the ones that we can sell globally, are much-needed by our partners – friendly countries, developing countries and major countries,” Viktoria Abramchenko said Russia sees no benefits in being a party to the Black Sea grain deal, but will continue to fulfill its humanitarian mission of exporting foodstuffs to foreign markets, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko has told TASS in an interview. “We see that this grain deal does not entail any benefits for Russia. But, at the same time, we are fulfilling all our obligations. We realize that the…

The African mission is set to arrive in Ukraine on Friday before heading to St. Petersburg on Saturday. The delegation of African leaders meant to initiate peace talks between Moscow and Kiev is expected to arrive in Ukraine from Poland by train on Friday, as the Ukrainian counteroffensive carries on. South African President Cyril Ramaphonsa highlighted the important role that the diplomatic mission has to play since, saying, “It is times of escalated conflict that search for peace must be equally accelerated.” Four African presidents and three representatives are scheduled to meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev on Friday…

“We started to have serious doubts about it lately,” Dmitry Polyansky said Russia doubts that Germany, Denmark and Sweden are actually conducting investigations into the sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky said. “It has become even more clear that Sweden, Germany and Denmark are not hurrying with their national investigations, to put it mildly,” the diplomat wrote on his Telegram channel. He said he doubted that these enquires were being conducted at all. “We started to have serious doubts about it lately,” Polyansky added. Source: Tass

Currently, between 150 and 200 US nuclear bombs are deployed in five non-nuclear NATO countries: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey NATO believes it would be premature to make any changes in the alliance’s nuclear configuration due to Russia’s actions, but will continue to monitor the situation, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. “So far, we haven’t seen any changes in the [Russian] nuclear posture that requires any changes in our [NATO] posture,” Stoltenberg said ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. “And we will continue to closely monitor what is needed and <…> how…