Author: Steven Sahiounie

Cargill will stop exporting from Russia in July, RBK reports Global commodities trader Cargill will stop exporting Russian grain in the new crop year, which starts on July 1, business daily RBK reported on Wednesday, citing a letter sent by the company to Russia’s Agriculture Ministry. The Russian unit of the American corporation named “earlier discussions on grain export issues and the recommendations of the Agriculture Ministry” as the reason for halting exports, but stressed that the shipments planned for the current 2022/2023 exporting season will be made “in full compliance with the existing quota,” RBK writes. According to the outlet, in the…

New Delhi continues to boost Russian crude imports despite Western sanctions on Moscow Moscow and New Delhi have agreed to “substantially increase” the supply of crude oil to India and diversify its grades, Russian energy major Rosneft announced on Wednesday. A deal was reached with the Indian Oil Company during a trip by Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin to the Asian country, the Russian firm said in a press release on its website. Sechin also met with the heads of some of India’s largest oil and gas companies and discussed wider cooperation in the energy sector, the press release stated. Possible trade settlements…

Government officials are seeking to cut an annual £2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) spend on accommodation for asylum seekers The UK government has revealed plans to place asylum seekers in disused army barracks as it seeks to reduce the cost of temporary housing for migrants, according to a proposal published on Wednesday. The proposal, which was detailed on Wednesday by UK Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick in the House of Commons, comes amid controversial plans by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government to reduce cross-channel migration – with Jenrick citing a yearly bill of £2.3 billion ($2.8 billion) currently being paid to…

Erdogan revealed plans for a possible visit of President Putin to Turkey in late April, as evidence of the friendly ties between Russia and Turkey despite the latter’s membership in the NATO alliance.  On Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he will not allow the West to drag Turkey into a war with Russia. “If not for our efforts over the past two years, the West would have dragged Turkey into a war against Russia. While we are here [in power], we will not have this happen,” Erdogan told A Haber TV channel. Erdogan added that Ankara intends to maintain neutrality…

The letter urges the Biden administration to investigate whether US arms sales to “Israel” are being used to violate US law or commit human rights violations Representative Jamaal Bowman, Senator Bernie Sanders, and several other US lawmakers are calling on US President Joe Biden’s administration to look into whether US arms sales to the Israeli occupation are being used to commit human rights abuses against Palestinians. In a letter to Biden and US State Secretary Antony Blinken, Bowman, as well as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Betty McCollum, and others cited “the rapidly escalating violence in the occupied Palestinian…

Tsai Ing-wen, on an unofficial visit, is transiting through the United States on her way to Central America Taiwan’s leader Tsai Ing-wen landed in New York on Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported. According to the newspaper, Tsai arrived “for her first visit to the US in more than three years.” Tsai, on an unofficial visit, is transiting through the United States on her way to Central America. The Taiwanese leader will be in New York through Friday, the WSJ writes. Earlier, Chinese Foreign Minister Spokesperson Mao Ning warned that Beijing would closely monitor the developments around Tsai’s visit, who…

Andrey Marochko told TASS on March 27 that the Ukrainian military had lost as many as 1,500 soldiers in battles with Russian forces in the Artyomovsk area over the week The Ukrainian military is daily losing 500 fighters in the area of Artyomovsk (called Bakhmut in Ukraine), Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) people’s militia retired Lieutenant-Colonel Andrey Marochko said on Thursday. “In my estimates, about 500 personnel daily [as casualties] there [in the Artyomovsk area]. These are both sanitary and irretrievable losses,” the retired officer said in a live broadcast on Komsomolskaya Pravda radio. The Ukrainian military experiences a shortage of…

The Senate has voted to repeal the congressional authorizations for Washington’s 1991 and 2003 invasions Decades on from America’s 1991 and 2003 invasions of Iraq, the US Senate has withdrawn congressional authorizations for the wars to keep future presidents from using them to launch more military conflicts. Lawmakers voted by a 66-30 margin on Wednesday to repeal the two authorizations for use of military force (AUMF). The 2003 Iraq War, which was illegal under the UN Charter, was started by then-President George W. Bush’s administration on the false assertion that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction…

The Defense Ministry in Beijing has said it is willing to work with Moscow on strengthening strategic coordination China is ready to strengthen cooperation with the Russian military in order to jointly uphold international justice, peace and security, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei stated on Thursday. The announcement comes after a summit between President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow earlier this month. The two leaders reaffirmed the principles of partnership between their nations, and agreed to improve bilateral relations and military coordination. According to Tan, China is “willing to work together with the Russian military…

The find turned out to be a spent smoke buoy, the Danish Energy Agency has said Denmark has salvaged a mysterious object spotted in teh area of the Nord Stream 2 blast site, the Danish Energy Agency said on Wednesday, revealing it turned out to be a discarded smoke buoy. “Investigations indicate that the object is an empty maritime smoke buoy, which is used for visual marking. The object does not pose a safety risk,” the agency said in a statement. The object was detected earlier this month, with Russian President Vladimir Putin revealing in a TV interview it was found during…