Author: Steven Sahiounie

The French leader admitted that he had a responsibility to “settle the understandable anger”, however, he pointed out that this anger should not turn into violence, which he said was unacceptable French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday against the backdrop of the pension reform unfolding in the country that he was ready to sacrifice his popularity for France’s interests as he did not intend to be re-elected. “I am not going to do another term, I cannot do it according to the Constitution. Between the opinion polls and the interests of the country I will choose the latter,” he…

The Israeli government could be taking the occupation steps backward, threatening normalization agreements with Arab countries. The United Arab Emirates is considering decreasing the level of its diplomatic representation in “Israel” and is instructing its ambassador in “Tel Aviv”, Ahmed Al-Khaja, not to meet any Israeli official, member of the Knesset, or minister at this stage, and not to participate in any official ceremonies, according to Elaph. Elaph learned that this came after the Israeli Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich’s statements, in which he said that there are no Palestinian people, thus nullifying any entity for the Palestinians. The same minister had called…

Early on March 22, a series of Israeli strikes hit Aleppo International Airport in northern Syria, placing it out of service for the second time in recent weeks. The Syrian Arab News Agency, citing a military source, said that the Israeli fighter jets launched several missiles at the airport from over the Mediterranean sea, causing some material losses. The state-run agency didn’t report any casualties, however. According to a notice sent by Syrian aviation authorities, known as a NOTAM, the runway at the airport was closed after the attack. In a statement, the Syrian Ministry of Transport said that the…

The spokesperson for the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Kanaani, dismissed the latest annual report by the US State Department on Iran’s human rights situation, calling it baseless, without credibility, and politically motivated. Kanaani criticized the US government’s interventionist approach towards independent countries and said the report has no legitimacy to judge or evaluate human rights issues in international relations. The spokesperson emphasized the loftiness and importance of human rights in Iran’s Constitution, laws, and regulations, and stressed that the US has no authority to speak about the values of human rights in other countries. He stated that there is…

Dmitry Peskov calls Bloomberg’s claim that no agreement has been struck “low-skilled misinformation” Western media reports on the lack of a major natural gas deal between Russia and China are fake, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday, referring to stories citing information published by Bloomberg. Peskov noted that earlier this week, Russian energy giant Gazprom announced a daily record in gas supplies to China through the Power of Siberia pipeline. “It [the Bloomberg report] looks like low-skilled misinformation. The reality is quite different,” Peskov told Russian business daily RBK. “The issues of expanding of supplies were discussed. By the way, just…

The two sides want to seal an agreement on the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline as soon as possible, Aleksandr Novak says Moscow and Beijing are actively working on the implementation of the Power of Siberia 2 energy project, which was among the issues discussed during President Xi Jinping’s official visit to Russia this week. That’s according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak, who spoke to Izvestia news agency on Tuesday about the proposed megadeal. “The project has support. Companies have been instructed to work out the details of the project and sign it as soon as possible,” he said. It is…

Elon Musk has proposed a solution to the current banking crisis in the US. The government must do away with the current $250,000 insurance cap on all deposits to stop panicking clients from withdrawing their money, the Tesla CEO wrote in a Twitter post on Tuesday. His comments come in response to a media report that US officials are studying ways to temporarily insure deposits beyond the current limit, without having to get approval from Congress. “Absolutely required to stop bank runs,” Musk wrote. The banking crisis began in the US earlier this month with the sudden collapse of Silicon Valley…

Former Lehman Brothers executive says the Fed must cut rates and guarantee deposits held by regional lenders The banking crisis could swallow another 50 regional lenders in the US if the country’s authorities don’t take appropriate steps to resolve structural issues, former vice-president at Lehman Brothers Lawrence McDonald said in an interview with RIA Novosti. “Policy-makers will most likely be forced to introduce a much larger withholding to maintain outflows of deposits from bank accounts that significantly exceed $250,000,” he said. The collapse of Lehman Brothers, which caused funding markets to seize up and made it hard for global lenders to…

Shipments of Russian seaborne crude declined last week but there is no substantial evidence that Moscow is implementing a 500,000-barrels-a-day output cut scheduled for March, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Volumes of oil destined for China, India, and Türkiye – nations that have not joined Western sanctions – and cargoes that have not yet confirmed their endpoint slumped by 90,000 barrels a day (bpd) to 3.23 million in the seven days to March 17. A total of 30 tankers were loaded with 22.6 million barrels of Russian crude in the same period, the outlet reported, citing ship-tracking data. This volume represents…

Traditionally, higher NVT ratios indicate that an asset is becoming more expensive, while lower NVT ratios indicate the opposite. An on-chain indicator that tracks bitcoin’s (BTC) relative valuation shows the asset has gotten “cheaper” in 2023, despite the recent price increase. Bitcoin’s Network Value to Transaction (NVT) ratio has declined 60% for the year to date, despite a 68% increase in BTC’s price. BTC’s current NVT ratio of 36.18 is slightly below the 365- day average of 36.40. The current ratio trails the 30-, 60-, 90- and 180-day NVT ratios, which all range between 44 and 49. The cause of…