Author: Steven Sahiounie

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported “unprecedented damage,” which had been inflicted on three lines of the Nord Stream pipelines the previous day US President Joe Biden could have decided to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines in order to punish German Chancellor Olaf Scholz for not wanting to provide Ukraine with more weapons, US Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said in an interview with China Daily published on Friday. “The President [Joe Biden] then decided in late September to trigger the mines. The war wasn’t going great in Ukraine. The American war that President Biden was…

It would be naive to expect that, without Russia’s participation, the OSCE “with its current anti-Russian frenzy and atmosphere of crisis would cease to exist” Any potential Russian withdrawal from the OSCE would hinder the resolution of security problems in the Euro-Atlantic area, and it is necessary to maintain the country’s presence [within the organization] and not cede the platform to its opponents, even while the prevailing anti-Russian hysteria is “nausea-inducing,” the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s European Cooperation Department, Nikolay Kobrinets, told TASS in an interview. “You may ask: ‘If everything is in such a sorry state in…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky states that Ukraine is currently waiting for its allies to supply it with weaponry. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has revealed that under present circumstances, Kiev is currently unable to launch a counteroffensive, blaming the situation on weapons shortage. “We can’t start yet. We can’t send our brave soldiers to the front line without tanks, artillery and HIMARS [multiple launch rocket systems],” Zelensky said in an interview with Yomiuri Shimbun daily. He continued, saying that the situation in the country’s east is “unfavorable” and that Ukraine is currently waiting for its allies to supply it with weaponry. This comes shortly after Zelensky beseeched…

Sanctioned businessman Oleg Deripaska says exorbitant government spending will lead to a financial crash The US economy is currently in a very challenging situation, Russian businessman Oleg Deripaska said on his Telegram channel on Friday. He claims the US economy cannot take the weight of the country’s enormous government debt and exorbitant spending. “Reckless militarization, sanctions against everyone, and military adventures around the world have already cost this country almost $33 trillion,” said the billionaire, who was sanctioned by the US last year. However, he provided no details on where this figure came from. Deripaska noted that the US has never…

The US base in Syria’s Conoco gas plant and Al-Omar base are hit with a barrage of rockets for the second time in 24 hours. Several rockets hit the US bases in the occupied Conoco gas field and Al-Omar oil field east of Deir Ezzor, Eastern Syria, people familiar with the matter told Al Mayadeen on Friday. Following the shelling of the bases, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported that US helicopters were hovering over the US Conoco gas fields east of the Euphrates river. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Friday that ten rockets targeted coalition forces at the Mission Support Site Green…

The prices of key ingredients have soared along with overall inflation, according to the outlet The cost of a basket of goods used to make the traditional English breakfast has surged to over £35 ($43) due to a lack of fresh vegetables in supermarkets and accelerating inflation, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. According to the outlet’s monthly Breakfast Index, the prices of items that typically feature in the morning fry-up jumped by more than 22% in February compared to the same month of last year. It was the second straight month that the index – which measures standard packages of eggs,…

Credit Suisse and UBS could face serious penalties for violating Washington’s sanctions Swiss banking giants Credit Suisse and UBS are on a list of banks under scrutiny by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly helping Russian businessmen to evade sanctions, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Swiss banks, along with a number of American banking majors, were reportedly subpoenaed by the DOJ. The agency’s sources added that the requests had been sent before Credit Suisse was hit by the crisis that resulted in its takeover by rival UBS. The probe is aimed at…

It will be difficult to take advantage of low tariffs this year to add to stockpiles, US energy secretary says Oil prices slumped on Friday on concerns of oversupply after US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced that replenishing the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) may take several years. Major global benchmarks were down more than 3% on Friday, extending losses from the previous day. Brent crude dropped 3.3% to $73.41 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures plunged 3.5% to $67.49 a barrel. “The lack of crude buying for the SPR represents a major blow to the oil-demand…

The greenback will remain the world’s reserve currency, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has predicted Russia and China will face substantial difficulty in their efforts to create an alternative to the US dollar in international trade, American Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen claimed on Thursday. Russia is conducting a rapid withdrawal from transactions in “unfriendly” currencies, against the backdrop of expanding EU and US sanctions. As part of the move, Moscow has shifted away from the dollar towards the ruble and local currencies in settlements with major trade partners such as China and India. “I certainly want to see the dollar remain as the…

Deutsche Bank and UBS have been hit by a sudden spike in the cost of default insurance Shares of European banking giants plummeted on Friday, with Deutsche Bank and UBS Group dropping 13% and 6%, respectively, after a sharp spike in credit default swaps was recorded on Thursday night. Shares of other lenders with high exposure to corporate lending were also down, with Commerzbank declining by 9% and Societe Generale shedding 7%. Credit default swaps, a form of insurance for corporate bondholders against a company’s default, surged to 173 basis points late on Thursday from 142 basis points the previous…