Author: Steven Sahiounie

Amid a recent escalation by the Israeli authorities aimed at prohibiting displays of the Palestinian flag, and in response to the government’s express intention to pass legislation to achieve that objective, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, based in Haifa, said the proposed ban is part of a larger pattern of attempts to deny Palestinians their right to express their collective identity. Adalah issued a position paper on 8 March in which it addresses the legality of displaying the Palestinian flag in the public sphere in Israel. The paper examines the history of hostility and…

US and German media sought to turn the Nord Stream sabotage attacks into an open-and-shut whodunit detective novel this week by laying the blame at the feet of a “pro-Ukrainian group” with no links to any state. This information contradicts reporting by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, who fingered the US and Norwegian militaries for the crime. A Greek-flagged tanker was spotted loitering around the site of the Nord Stream attacks for six days in September 2022, two weeks before the pipelines were blown up in a sabotage attack, a Denmark-based open-source intelligence (OSINT) analyst has discovered. Trawling through data from…

Ukrainian media say the Ukrainian military possibly used the JDAM near the Kurdyumivka settlement. Ukraine has possibly used for the first time since the beginning of the war a Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), or a “smart bomb”, near Bakhmut city, Ukrainian news outlet Strana.ua reported on Friday. The JDAM was reported to have been used by the Ukrainian military forces near the Kurdyumivka settlement, the outlet said. Yan Gagin, an advisor to the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), told Russian news agency TASS on March 10 that Ukrainian forces dropped a JDAM bomb on Kurdyumivka near the Bakhmut region of the…

The Saudi Foreign Minister says Lebanon must engage in local efforts to elect a president and not rely on foreign interventions. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said Lebanon must observe its own interests when choosing its president, stressing that the country requires joint Lebanese-only efforts to elect a president, not an “Iranian-Saudi rapprochement”. On the other hand, Bin Farhan revealed an Arab effort to formulate a dialogue that will “inevitably” take place with Damascus, in consultation with the international community. He continued, “We must find a way to overcome the challenges posed by this status…

An expert reveals to Newsweek that Russia’s Navy capabilities have drastically evolved since the collapse of the Soviet Union following the Cold War. Russia’s missile and submarine capabilities compared to the Cold War Soviet era have exponentially developed, posing a serious and drastic threat to the United States, the Director of Russia Maritime Studies Institute (RMSI) told Newsweek. Michael Petersen, a professor at the US Naval War College and founding director of RMSI, explained the difference between submarine advancement in current-day Russia and Soviet Russia. Source: Almayadeen

Earlier it was reported that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky tasked Prime Minister Denis Shmygal with “carefully studying” the possibility of renaming Russia to Muscovy in the Ukrainian language The idea of renaming Russia into Muscovy in the Ukrainian language once again proves attempts to create “anti-Russia” from Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Saturday. Earlier it was reported that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky tasked Prime Minister Denis Shmygal with “carefully studying” the possibility of renaming Russia to Muscovy in the Ukrainian language. “The bunker (President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky ) proves that we are right every day.…

The plane flew approximately 3-5 km away from the border, Azerbaijani Foreign and Defense Ministries said in a joint statement The Foreign Ministry of Azerbaijan presented to Iranian Ambassador with a note of protest over sorties of an Iranian military plane over the border between the two countries, Azerbaijani Foreign and Defense Ministries said in a joint statement Saturday. “On March 11, a military plane belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran was continuously flying along the Azerbaijani-Iranian border between 09:44 and 10:26 [local time], from Zangilan to Bilyasuvar District and back. The plane flew approximately 3-5 km away from…

Oil prices climbed more than 1% on Friday after better-than-expected U.S. employment data, though both benchmarks fell more than 3% on the week on U.S. interest rate hike jitters. Brent rose $1.19, or 1.5%, to $82.78 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) was up 96 cents, or 1.3%, at $76.68. Expectations of further rate hikes in the world’s largest economy and in Europe have clouded the global growth outlook and driven both crude benchmarks down this week. However, the U.S. Federal Reserve may have less reason to raise interest rates as sharply or as high as some had…

Layoffs jumped more than five times in February from a year earlier, an outplacement firm reports American employers announced 77,770 job cuts in February, marking a 410% increase from the same month last year, executive coaching firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas has revealed. According to the report issued earlier this week, February’s total was the highest for the month since 2009, when 186,350 job cuts were recorded. However, the figure was down 24% on the 102,943 cuts announced in January. So far this year, employers have announced plans to eliminate 180,713 jobs, up 427% from the 34,309 cuts announced in the first…

Trade turnover between the two countries has tripled this year, data from New Delhi shows Russia has entered the ranks of India’s top five partners in trade, data from the Indian Department of Commerce shows. According to the figures, in the ten months of the fiscal year beginning in April 2022 and ending this month, turnover between the two countries has tripled. Moscow is now in fifth place on the list, after the US, China, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. This marks the first time since the late 1990s, when India began tracking trade statistics, that Russia has entered the top-five. The country…