Author: Steven Sahiounie

The Senate is expected to vote on an amendment this week introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that would appoint a special inspector general to oversee the over $113 billion that has been authorized to spend on the war in Ukraine. Hawley said the ideal candidate for the position would be John Sopko, who has served as the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction since 2012 and has issued scathing reports on US policy and waste in Afghanistan. “He’s done a terrific job – maybe he’d like to do this job. I mean, he already knows how to do it. And that’s…

It is reported that some French businesses have left Russia French authorities are going after any businessmen who even theoretically do not comply with anti-Russian sanctions, Ambassador in Paris Aleksey Meshkov said on the air with the Rossiya-24 TV Channel. “Indeed the hunt is on for anyone who might even theoretically not be complying with anti-Russian sanctions,” the Ambassador said, answering a question about whether French entrepreneurs are ready to sever ties with Russian businessmen, as the French authorities are working on measures to crack down on the circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions.. Some French businesses have left Russia, Meshkov noted.…

The former US president has again argued that he could end the conflict in 24 hours Donald Trump has once again claimed that he would need just 24 hours to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Speaking to Fox News, the former US president warned of a possible nuclear escalation and urged the hostilities to be ceased immediately. “The key to that is that war has to stop now, because Ukraine is being obliterated,” Trump told host Sean Hannity in an interview on Monday. Trump compared footage from the conflict to “hundreds of these demolition sites” that he used to see as part of his…

Annual inflation in UK shops surged to its highest in at least 18 years in March, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing data from the British Retail Consortium (BRC). According to the report, overall shop price inflation jumped to 8.9% from 8.4% in February, which was the largest increase since the BRC started tracking the indicator in 2005. The rise was largely driven by food prices, which soared 15% from a year ago. The figure correlates with official data released last week, which showed that food and non-alcoholic drinks inflation rose to 18%, the highest since 1977. According to BRC CEO…

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian unveiled plans to issue an invitation to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to visit Tehran. In an interview with Al Jazeera news network on Monday, Amirabdollahian said Iran has responded to an invitation by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud for Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to visit Riyadh and will offer to reciprocally host the king. In a post on his Twitter account on March 19, Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs, announced that the Saudi king has invited the Iranian president to visit the kingdom,…

Rafael Grossi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in October 2022 International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi may visit Russia in the coming days, as the official himself said in an interview with the Associated Press published on Tuesday. In particular, Grossi stated that he would most probably head to Russia in the nearest future. Grossi has repeatedly visited Russia. The IAEA chief met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg in October 2022. He held talks with Alexey Likhachev, CEO of Russia’s Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation, in Moscow on March 9.…

Black-clad demonstrators hurled rocks at police, who responded by baton-charging the crowds A pension reform protest in Paris degenerated into violence on Tuesday, as groups of masked rioters clashed with heavily-armored riot police. Authorities say nearly 100,000 people marched in the French capital, as public anger over the government’s pension reform plan refuses to subside. The march started out peacefully, but as the crowd neared its destination of Place de la Nation in the east of the city center, activists dressed in black set fire to a storefront, prompting police to charge the crowd with batons drawn. Demonstrators were clubbed…

The country has found buyers for all of the supplies at risk of being stranded due to sanctions Moscow has completely redirected all of its oil exports from ‘unfriendly states’ to new markets, Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov stated on Tuesday. According to the minister, supplies are now destined to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. “Already we can state that we have managed to fully redirect the entire volume of exports which initially fell out due to sanctions. There is no decrease in sales,” Shulginov stated. Earlier on Tuesday, the deputy prime minister and former energy minister, Aleksandr…

Some analysts say the exchange’s recent move to include other stablecoins in its zero-fee trading program could have contributed to lessening dependence on BUSD. Binance USD (BUSD), a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar, endured over $500 million in outflows in the roughly 24 hours since a U.S. lawsuit was filed against Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao, data from CryptoQuant shows. This rush to the exits is quite a bit smaller than that seen following the February crackdown on New York-based BUSD issuer Paxos by the New York Department of Financial Services and a Wells Notice of potential action from…

13,000 officers will be deployed to counter nationwide protests, the interior minister has announced French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has ordered 13,000 police officers into the streets of France’s major cities as protests against the government’s controversial pension reforms continue. Darmanin said that he is expecting “radical activists” from abroad to instigate violence at the demonstrations. Darmanin announced the deployment on Monday night, adding that 5,000 of the mobilized officers would be stationed in Paris ahead of marches on Tuesday. “Our services anticipate that there will be significant disruption to public order,” he said, warning that “more than 1,000 radical activists, some arriving from…