Author: Steven Sahiounie

Mass protest rallies against France’s new pension reform are being held across the entire country on Tuesday A tenth protest rally with students and trade unions participating kicked off in Lyon on Tuesday where thousands of people gathered to protest against the overhaul of France’s pension system. The protesters will march from the university campus to the city’s central square. From 22,000 to 55,000 people, according to various estimates, participated in the previous protest rally held on March 23. Mass protest rallies against France’s new pension reform are being held across the entire country on Tuesday. Source: Tass

One of the crucial reasons as to why he is considered an irrational actor in terms of foreign policy is because his irrational decisions will eventually impact the US’ image and its decisions – especially threatening the normalization accords. In international relations, Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is now considered the epitome of an irrational actor, amid the chaos he has caused in “Israel”, according to the New York Times. A rational actor is one who can be depended and relied on to make rational and sound decisions – one that apparently Netanyahu is not. His defense minister, Yoav Gallant,…

Low liquidity means a wave of buy or sell orders can have an outsized impact on bitcoin’s market price. Poor liquidity, a problem plaguing crypto markets since the collapse of the FTX exchange in November, could worsen, breeding price volatility as regulators go after dominant exchange Binance. On Monday, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance for running an alleged “illegal exchange” and a “sham” compliance program. The regulator, which is responsible for oversight of commodities and derivatives markets, including the derivatives tied to bitcoin (BTC), sued Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and former top compliance executive Samuel Lim, alleging “willful evasion” of…

Yet another Palestinian is martyred at the hands of the occupation. A young Palestinian has succumbed to gunshot wounds he sustained more than a month ago during an Israeli army raid on the occupied northern West Bank city of Nablus. Medical officials and family sources announced the death of Omair Loulah on Tuesday, adding that he was severely wounded when eleven Palestinians, including a 16-year-old, were killed and more than 80 were wounded by Israeli gunshots on February 21, as Israeli occupation forces raided the occupied West Bank. At the time, widespread confrontations broke out soon after the occupation forces stormed…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accuses XRP of being an unregistered security in a court case that’s expected to be completed soon. XRP tokens surged 8% over the past 24 hours to buck a market-wide decline following a U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filing against prominent crypto exchange Binance. XRP traded just under 50 cents in Asian morning hours on Tuesday, reaching a five-month high. Its XRP Ledger network has seen fundamental upgrades in the past few months that may have contributed to the rise. However, a part of the bullish outlook came as some in the community said…

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…