Author: Steven Sahiounie

On March 26, an Iraqi armed group calling itself the Victorious Brigade [Liwa al-Ghalibun in Arabic] claimed responsibility for a recent drone attack that targeted a United States base near the northeastern Syrian city of al-Hasakah. The attack, which took place on March 23, claimed the life of a U.S. contractor and left five U.S. service members and a second U.S. contractor wounded. In a statement, the Victorious Brigade said that the attack was a response to the assassination of Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, Deputy-Commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, and Commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassim Soleimani. The two commanders were…

On the morning of March 26, a sea mine exploded in the Odessa region. The Ukrainian mine damaged civilian buildings and the pier. The Odessa City Council confirmed the incident. The speaker of the Odessa regional military administration said that the explosion occurred near the coastal village of Sychavka. As a result, a country house was damaged, there were no casualties as a result of the explosion. The mine was washed ashore by a storm. The storm in the region continues. The officials warned that due to bad weather, mines could drift along the coast. After the Ukrainian military mined…

Tim Cook has praised the company’s nearly 30-year-long relationship with the country, both as a market and a manufacturing hub US iPhone maker Apple and China have “grown together” over the past three decades, and the relationship between the company and one of its largest markets has become “symbolic,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the China Development Forum in Beijing on Saturday. In his first visit to China since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Cook said the company would soon celebrate the 30th anniversary of operating in the Chinese market. “We could not be more excited……

China and Russia became the world leaders in trade surplus last year, according to calculations by RIA Novosti based on data from the national statistical services of both countries. A trade surplus is an indicator of a positive balance of trade, where a country’s exports exceed its imports. Traditionally, by showing that local currency and resource inflow exceeds outflow, a surplus serves as an indicator of a healthy economy. Both countries broke their own records in 2022, with China’s trade surplus surging 30% to an all-time high of $877.6 billion. The country exported approximately $3.59 trillion worth of goods, a…

The politician pointed at Washington as the beneficiary of the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage The sabotage of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines has turned Germany’s dependence on Russian natural gas into an addiction to liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US, a member of the German Bundestag, Andrej Hunko, has said. Germany has paid heavily for last year’s explosions on the pipelines, which were built to deliver cheap natural gas from Russia, The Left party politician told China’s Global Times newspaper in an interview on Thursday. He noted that the sabotage left Berlin without an option to “choose which gas…

For some shoppers who already struggle to cover grocery bills, the budget is getting tighter. This month, pandemic-related emergency funding from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, is ending in most states, leaving many low-income families with less to spend on food. More than 41 million Americans receive funding for food through the federal program. For those households, it will amount to at least $95 less per month to spend on groceries. Yet for many families, the drop will be even steeper since the government assistance scales up to adjust for household size and income. For grocers like Kroger, big-box players…

One of the biggest unknowns since the Federal Reserve started its historic rate-hiking campaign has been how many jobs could be lost from the central bank’s deliberate effort to slow down the US economy. So far, the labor market has stayed white hot, with unemployment hovering at a half-century low. But Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s acknowledgment on Wednesday that the banking sector meltdown could lead to “tighter credit conditions for households and businesses, which would in turn affect economic outcomes” has critics reminding him of the human impact of that “Fedspeak:” Millions of people out of work. The Fed’s latest economic projections,…

International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday that risks to financial stability have increased and called for continued vigilance although actions by advanced economies have calmed market stress. The IMF managing director reiterated her view that 2023 would be another challenging year, with global growth slowing to below 3% due to scarring from the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and monetary tightening. Even with a better outlook for 2024, global growth will remain well below its historic average of 3.8% and the overall outlook remained weak, she said at the China Development Forum. The IMF, which has predicted…

Investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been in decline across the world, plummeting 34% last year to $45.8 billion, analytics company CB Insights reports. According to its analysis, the decline directly corresponds to the broader venture-funding slowdown recorded in 2022. The total number of AI deals were also down for the year by 10% to just 2,956. The funding slightly rebounded in the fourth quarter, reaching $9.3 billion. However, the number of deals continued to decline during the period. The report highlighted that, in 2022, the total number of AI unicorns reached 166, with 34 new additions. The number of…

Russian President said that “it is not military alliance” Russia and China are developing cooperation, including on the military track, but this “is not a military alliance,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Sunday. “This is absolutely untrue,” the president said in an interview on the Rossiya-24 TV channel, when asked whether cooperation between Moscow and Beijing posed a threat to the West. “We are not creating any military alliance with China. Yes, we also cooperate on the track of military-technical cooperation, we do not hide it, but it is transparent, there is nothing secret there,” Putin said. According to…