Author: Steven Sahiounie

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The Chief of the Lebanese Central Bank, Riad Salameh, is expected to appear today before State Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat at the Lebanese Ministry of Justice, after an Interpol ‘red notice’ was issued on May 19. If Salameh appears today, it is expected that his Lebanese and French passports will be confiscated to prevent his flight from accusations of bank fraud, embezzlement of more than $330 million, and money laundering. Oueidat seeks to hear Salameh in his defense of the charges. On May 23, Germany informed the Lebanese Ministry of Justice they also had issued…

Syria’s Foreign Ministry says Paris must accept that nations are rejecting sanctions and demanding respect. Syria stresses that France’s colonial ambitions are no longer applicable in the multipolar world, calling on Paris to adjust its delusional policies in accordance with the new emerging reality. “We have recently followed the hysteria, isolated and detached from reality stances of French diplomacy, which has lost its senses after the historic decisions taken by the Arab summit of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia towards Syria,” the Foreign Ministry of the Syrian Arab Republic said on Wednesday. “France, along with its terrorist tools, has failed…

The European Union condemns the Israeli authorities’ permission to build 600 housing units in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling for revoking the decision. The European Union has condemned “Israel” over an order allowing illegal Israeli settlers to establish a permanent presence in the illegal “Homesh” settlement, north of the occupied West Bank. The European Union said today it was gravely concerned by the decision of the Israeli occupation authorities to allow Israeli settlers to return to the evacuated illegal “Homesh” settlement outpost in the north of the occupied West Bank. The Union further stressed that it was appalled by…

The attack comes shortly after a delegation from the European Union visited the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus. Al Mayadeen correspondent reported, today, Wednesday, that a group of illegal Israeli settlers attacked the people of the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, and burned down olive trees. Two Palestinian youths were injured by shrapnel from live bullets, and dozens of others suffocated from poisonous gas.  The Palestinian official in charge of the settlement file in the northern occupied West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, told WAFA that settlers attacked citizens’ homes on the western side of the village of Burqa, burned a sheep’s barn…

The price of Shiba Inu (SHIB) has dropped by 2% in the past 24 hours, slipping to $0.00000865 as the cryptocurrency market as a whole falls by 1.5%. SHIB’s dip today means it has lost 1% in a week and 16% in the last 30 days, with the meme token up by 6.5% since the beginning of the year. Given that the likes of Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have gained by 61% and 51% since the start of 2023, SHIB could easily be accused of underperforming in recent months, with the coin having been on a steady decline since…

The Bitcoin price has fallen by 2% today, dropping to $26,757 in the past 24 hours and undermining expectations that the cryptocurrency’s recent consolidation had set it up for a breakout. BTC’s current price means it has barely budged in the past week, although the coin has gained by 2% since reaching a low of $26,270 on May 12. It has also risen by 61% since the beginning of the 2023, with this medium-term increase putting BTC on a path towards further recovery in the coming months. Indeed, with some voices suggesting that the global economy will do better this…

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) generally moves in the opposite direction of what traders anticipate, crypto sentiment analysis firm Santiment has found. Writing on Twitter earlier this week, Santiment said that the fact that Bitcoin’s price moves contrary to what “the crowd” expects is something that has been seen many times, and most recently this past weekend. Last Sunday, Bitcoin briefly bounced to nearly $27,300, as traders expressed “disbelief” in social media, Santiment wrote. Today, however, that situation has turned, and optimism has returned to the market. This appears to be “resulting in a top,” Santiment pointed out in the tweet. At…

Though Billionaire Elon Musk has shown his love for meme coin Dogecoin over the years, that doesn’t mean he is telling investors to put their life savings into it. Musk told the Wall Street Journal this week that at its CEO Council Summit to not “bet the farm on dogecoin.” “I’m not advising anyone to buy crypto or bet the farm on dogecoin,” Musk said. Musk added that dogecoin is his favorite because it has “the best humor” and “it has dogs.” Pawsitive on dogecoin Musk, who bought Twitter last year, adopted Dogecoin’s symbol as its logo in April, sending the meme coin’s value…

The world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, has mixed company revenues with customer funds in the US, according to a Reuters report. The comingling of customer funds and company revenues happened “almost daily” in bank accounts the exchange had at the now-bankrupt crypto-friendly bank Silvergate, the report said, citing “a person with direct knowledge of Binance’s group finances.” The mixing of funds at Binance reportedly happened in 2020 and 2021, and was in violation of US laws that require customer funds to be kept separate, three sources told Reuters. The alleged practice was at least partially verified by a bank statement from February…

European banks are looking stronger and more attractive than their U.S. counterparts on many metrics, according to officials and analysts speaking at the Institute of International Finance conference in Brussels this week, who add that regulation and collaboration is still needed to boost growth in the region. The biggest bank in the U.S. is worth what the top nine or 10 European banks are due to weaker growth and less profitability since the 2008 financial crisis, Ana Botín, executive chair of Spain’s Santander Group, told CNBC at the event on Tuesday. However, the top European banks have better levels of credit default…