Author: Steven Sahiounie

Households are now facing a potential £837 hike in the annual cost of their regular basket – although consumers are increasingly shopping around in a bid to find the best value. UK grocery inflation has hit a new record high – with customers now paying hundreds more a year – but there are warnings the worst is yet to come. As inflation for food hits 17.5%, Kantar Worldpanel reported households are now facing a potential £837 hike in the annual cost of their regular basket – although consumers are increasingly shopping around in a bid to find the best value.…

HAINAN — Asia, especially China, is an area of certainty amid global uncertainty, according to an annual economic outlook report released Tuesday at the high-profile Boao Forum in Hainan province. “Deepened financial integration in Asia has made regional economies more resilient against negative impacts from international capital flows,” according to the executive summary of the report. The Boao Forum outlook did not go into detail about recent banking turmoil in the U.S. and Switzerland, but said the banking sector is expected to remain stable. It was not clear whether it was referring to the global financial sector or the banking…

French authorities on Tuesday searched offices of several large banks, including Societe Generale, BNP Paribas and HSBC on the suspicion of money laundering and fiscal fraud, a spokesperson of the PNF financial prosecution office told Reuters. Societe General confirmed the searches. The other concerned banks could not immediately be reached for comment. The spokesperson confirmed earlier reports by paper Le Monde which said the probe was linked to dividend stripping and also hit Exane and Natixis. The PNF said that five investigations were ongoing linked to so-called “cum-cum” practices, through which wealthy clients sought to evade taxes on dividends through…

The collapse of U.S.-based Silicon Valley Bank, the biggest bank failure since the global financial crisis, and the emergency rescue of Credit Suisse by Swiss rival UBS, sparked a sell-off in banking stocks as contagion fears spread. Deutsche Bank was the next target, with shares plunging and the cost of insuring against its default spiking at the end of last week — despite the German lender’s strong capital and liquidity positions. The market panic appeared to subside Monday after First Citizens agreed to buy a large chunk of failed Silicon Valley Bank’s assets. The S&P 500 Banks index climbed 3% on Monday, but remains down 22.5% over March,…

Energy purchases by New Delhi surged by more than twenty-fold last year, Deputy PM Aleksandr Novak has said Russia has continued to shift its exports of oil and petroleum products toward so-called ‘friendly’ countries, with India and China further increasing their share of the country’s supplies, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak stated on Tuesday. “Most of our energy resources were redirected to the markets of friendly countries. For example, oil supplies to India increased 22 times last year. Supplies to China and other markets have been also on the rise, and this is the result of that great work that…

Three countries supported it, 12 abstained, no one voted against The UN Security Council did not support the Russian-Chinese resolution on the international investigation of the Nord Stream sabotage Monday. The resolution was supported by 3 countries, with zero votes against and 12 nations abstained. Thus, the resolution failed to receive nine votes required for approval. The resolution was supported by Russia, China and Brazil, with Albania, the UK, Gabon, Ghana, Malta, Mozambique, the UAE, the US, France, Switzerland, Ecuador and Japan abstained. The resolution was also co-authored by Belarus, Venezuela, DPRK, Nicaragua, Syria and Eritrea. However, these states are…

Israeli settlers set up a new colonial outpost on the lands of al-Baqai’a Plain in the northern Jordan Valley, which is usually a prelude to building a new illegal settlement, today said a local official. Motaz Bisharat, an official in the Tubas Governorate, said a group of Israeli settlers set up an animal barn and brought cows to create a new fact on the ground and yesterday they set up three more shacks turning the spot into a settlement outpost. He said the total area of the lands that the outpost is expected to seize is estimated at nearly 1,800 dunums.…

The Israeli occupation authorities today issued a demolition order against a mosque in the south Hebron Hills, according to a local activist. Rateb Jabour, from the Wall and Settlements Resistance Committees in Masafer Yatta, said soldiers handed the people living in Khashm al-Daraj community an order to demolish the mosque and gave them two weeks to object to the order. The mosque is 150 square meters in area and serves several communities in Masafer Yatta and the South Hebron Hills. Source: Wafa

The U.S. and Japan announced a trade deal on electric vehicle battery minerals that would grant Japanese automakers access to the Biden administration’s $7,500 EV tax credit scheme as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. The announcement added that the two countries share a common interested in raising “resilience against threats such as economic coercion and non-market policies.” The IRA states plug-in electric vehicles much be produced in North America to qualify for the tax incentives. “This is a welcome moment as the United States continues to work with our allies and partners to strengthen supply chains for critical minerals, including through the Inflation Reduction Act,” U.S.…

there was a significant increase in attacks on health care in the West Bank, today said the World Health Organization (WHO) in its monthly Health Access Report in the occupied Palestinian territory. Health attacks occurred in the context of major incursions by Israeli forces into Palestinian towns and refugee camps and a rise in violence carried out by Israeli settler groups, it said. WHO verified 47 health attacks in the first two months of 2023, which included: • 37 incidents involving obstruction to the delivery of health care, which included closures that happened during incursions on Jenin, Nablus and Hawara,…