Author: Steven Sahiounie

The US President noted he will be in constant communication with his team while away to attend the G7 summit that will be held in Hiroshima, Japan, from May 19-21.  US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he is confident an agreement with congressional leaders will be reached regarding the US debt ceiling being raised and that the US government will not default on its financial obligations. “We are confident that we’ll get the agreement on the budget, that America will not default,” Biden said. “We’re going to come together because there’s no alternative to doing the right thing for the…

Maria Zakharova went on to say that Moscow’s primary views of the deal have not changed Moscow confirms that the grain deal has been extended for two more months, providing an opportunity to help ensure global food security, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said earlier that the grain deal had been extended for another 60 days. “We confirm the Turkish president’s announcement of a two-month extension of the Black Sea initiative, which is an opportunity to help ensure global food security not in words but in deeds, to help first and foremost…

Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Dr. Fayssal Mikdad affirmed that the Arabs welcome the Syrian role and that there are no differences over issues related to Syria. Mikdad said , in a press statement following the preparatory meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Jeddah “We work together with our Arab brothers, and all Arabs welcome the Syrian role and there are no differences over issues related to Syria,’. “All the projects and laws presented during the meeting reflected our views to overcome the crisis and respect the role played by Syria at the regional and international levels” Mikdad added. Mikdad said,…

oreign and Expatriates Minister, Fayssal Mikdad, met Wednesday Envoy of the Russian Foreign Ministry for the Middle East affairs, Vladimir Safronkov on the sidelines of the preparatory meetings ahead of the Arab Summit due Friday. The two sides reviewed a number of issues related to the Arab region and the latest developments on all levels. Earlier, Mikdad met a number of Arab Ministers on the sidelines of the preparatory meetings. Source: SANA

The XRP price has jumped by 5% in the past 24 hours after the judge presiding over Ripple’s case with the SEC denied the regulator’s motion to seal important documents. At $0.446896, XRP is up by 4% in a week but down by 13% in the last 30 days, with today’s spike going some way towards reversing losses suffered by the altcoin in the past couple of weeks. And given that Ripple and the court will now have access to docs related to the famous William Hinman speech in 2018, the expectation is now that the company is in a…

Brazil’s state-owned oil company announces large price cuts on energy commodities for local markets after ditching USD international pricetag. Brazil announced that it will break away with the US dollar when pricing for the local market, putting an end to pegging domestic prices with the green note, AFP reported on Tuesday. State-owned oil company Petrobras said it will still be using fuel prices in the international market as a benchmark to determine how much individuals would pay at the pump. The decision “puts an end to the mandatory subordination (of prices) to the import parity price” in US dollars, said the energy…

UBS estimates a financial hit of around $17 billion from its emergency takeover of Credit Suisse, according to a regulatory filing, and said the rushed deal may have affected its due diligence. In a new filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) late Tuesday night, the Swiss banking giant flagged a total negative impact of around $13 billion in fair value adjustments of the new combined entity’s assets and liabilities, along with a potential $4 billion hit from litigation and regulatory costs. However, UBS also expects to offset this by booking a one-off $34.8 billion gain from so-called “negative goodwill,”…

Volumes have tripled over the past year, led by pharmaceuticals, the outlet has reported Italian exports to China have tripled over the past year, with shipments in February alone surging by 131% year-on-year, with no evident reason for the jump, according to Bloomberg. Supplies of Italian goods to China rose above €3 billion ($3.3 billion) in February, substantially up from the roughly €1 billion ($1 billion) Italy exported last February, the outlet wrote on Monday. Data provided by Bloomberg shows that the bulk of the exports were pharmaceuticals in the very specific segment of “medicaments consisting of mixed or unmixed products…

Almost 80% of crude has been rerouted from the EU to India and China, the agency reports Russian oil exports reached a 14-month high in April, with the lion’s share going to Asian markets amid Western sanctions, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported on Tuesday. Crude shipments increased by 50,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 8.3 million bpd last month. The report suggests that a planned Russian oil production cut has not been fully implemented, something Moscow has denied. In February, Russia pledged to voluntarily reduce oil output by 500,000 bpd starting in March. The move came in response…

Debt has already surpassed 89% of GDP and will continue to rise, Russia’s envoy to the UN warns Western financial measures are leading Kiev into a sovereign debt crisis, with the burden expected to exceed Ukraine’s GDP by the end of the year, the Russian ambassador to the UN has warned. “We will hear a lot today about the solidarity of the Western community with Ukraine, the readiness to support it ‘as long as it takes.’ However, it is necessary to understand that this support is taking Ukraine to the brink,” Vassily Nebenzia told the UN Security Council on Monday. “Its foreign…