Author: Steven Sahiounie

DPRK leader Kim Jong Un was pictured touring the country’s space agency with his daughter in official media photographs.  DPRK leader Kim Jong Un announced the country has concluded building its first military reconnaissance satellite and gave the green light for its launch, as per state media. Kim gave directions on Tuesday to “make sure that the military reconnaissance satellite No. 1 completed as of April will be launched at the planned date,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. During a visit to the DPRK’s National Aerospace Development Administration on Tuesday, he urged staff to “firmly establish the satellite intelligence-gathering capability by deploying…

More than 10,000 Egyptian citizens in total are calling on their government to secure their safe return to their country as the war in Sudan intensifies. Over ten thousand Egyptians in Sudan, at least half of whom are students pursuing their studies in the country’s universities, released a distress call to their country to secure their safe return after being caught in the crossfire of the warring parties. Some of these students spoke to the media and called on their government to return them to Egypt as soon as possible. Ambassador Amr Abbas, assistant minister of Immigration for Egyptians Abroad…

Syrian Airways announced the suspension of its flights to Khartoum Airport until further notice due to unrest in the country. The Airways, which runs a Friday service to Khartoum International Airport, cancelled its flights and called on passengers to contact or visit their offices for any inquiries. Source: SANA

The “Arabian Business” magazine stated that the world’s first Sharia-compliant cryptocurrency is scheduled to be launched next May, and this comes at a time when the demand for digital currencies in the world has increased. One of its founders told Arabian Business that the world’s first Sharia-compliant digital currency, the Islamic currency, will be launched to the public next month. But what makes it halal? The Islamic currency, which is still in private sale mode, is powered by Haq Blockchain, a network compatible with thousands of applications worldwide. Haq Blockchain, which means “truth” in Arabic, strictly adheres to Islamic principles…

Syria and Indonesia have discussed prospects of joint parliamentary cooperation, in addition to a number of issues of common interest. That came during a meeting between Syrian Ambassador in Jakarta, Abdul- Moneim Annan and Chairman of the Committee on Inter- Parliamentary Cooperation in the Indonesian House of Representatives, Fadli Zon. Ambassador Annan highlighted the historical relations binding Syria and Indonesia and the great opportunities to expand and increase the volume of trade exchange and economic cooperation between the two countries. In turn, Zon said that he will visit Syria next May heading a big parliamentary delegation, after which a number of recommendations will be submitted to the…

The Turkish lira fell to its lowest level against the dollar, with continued uncertainty about the results of the presidential and legislative elections in mid-May, which could lead to the first political change in 20 years. The currency fell to 19.5996 pounds per dollar, which is unprecedented since the adoption of the new pound in January 2005. Since the rapid decline in the value of the Turkish currency at the end of 2021, the government has taken measures to support it following its decline due to inflation and capital outflows. “It failed,” said Mike Harris of the consulting firm, Krebstone…

Oil prices fell, in trading today, Wednesday, amid a state of anticipation in the markets for the US Energy Information Administration report on US crude inventories. And by 09:35 Moscow time, US crude futures fell by 0.52% to $80.44 a barrel, while Brent crude futures fell by 0.50% to $84.35 a barrel. Yesterday, US crude contracts closed trading at $80.86 a barrel, and Brent crude contracts at $84.77 a barrel. On Tuesday, prices received support after sources quoted by the American Petroleum Institute that US crude stocks fell by about 2.68 million barrels in the week ending April 14. An…

Russia has large reserves of important mineral ores for industry, but these reserves are not fully extracted. Instead, Russia imports processed minerals, although it owns its raw materials. What is the reason behind this contradiction and what are the prospects for using these materials? A report by “Novosti” agency revealed the prospects for the use of mineral ores in Russia, but it initially identified the reasons behind not investing these wealth over the past years. She said that the Soviet Union, including Russia, used to secure itself in all kinds of mineral raw materials, but after the dissolution of the…

The surge in consumer prices continued to subside in April, but inflationary pressures remain, the central bank says Annualized inflation in Russia has slowed to a rate of 3.15% as of April 10, according to data from the central bank. According to the regulator, this happened “mainly due to the effect of the high statistical base of the spring of 2022,” when prices surged amid the first rounds of Western sanctions and tensions regarding the conflict with Ukraine. The indicator continued to fall after a sharp drop to 3.51% in March from 10.99% in February. The last time the consumer…

Inflation in the UK came in at over 10% year-on-year in March, the highest rate among countries in Western Europe, official data showed on Wednesday. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the consumer price index (CPI) in the UK fell by less than expected to 10.1% in March, whereas economists had predicted a drop to 9.8%. The February reading stood at 10.4% year-on-year. “The largest upward contributions to the annual CPIH inflation rate in March 2023 came from housing and household services (principally from electricity, gas and other fuels), and food and non-alcoholic beverages,” the ONS said. Food prices…