Author: Steven Sahiounie

A new bill repealing the disengagement law passed in 2005 has passed in Knesset’s first reading. Several EU member states, as well as the UK, denounced the Knesset’s approval of a bill that will allow Israeli settlers to return to areas across the West Bank that were previously evacuated as part of the 2005 Israeli-known Disengagement Law, which represented the liberation of Gaza and the partial liberation of the West Bank. The Palestinian foreign ministry denounced the Knesset’s decision and called on the international community to denounce the bill as well, and to pressure the Israeli government to back down from the decision. “Proceeding…

Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow on an official visit on Tuesday, accompanied by a large delegation of ministers Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad will touch on Damascus-Ankara relations at talks in Moscow, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday. “Undoubtedly, the topic of Syria-Turkey relations will be touched upon today in one way or another,” the spokesman said, responding to a question on how the Russia-Syria talks would affect the probability of Assad’s meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to Peskov, the heads of state will discuss bilateral relations and the settlement…

In response, the Taiwanese military issued radio warnings, scrambled air patrols and deployed air defense systems Taiwan spotted 28 Chinese aircraft and four ships around the island, the island’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday. Today, as of 6:00 a.m., 28 aircraft and four ships of the PLA (People’s Liberation Army of China) were spotted around Taiwan, the ministry said on Twitter. As Taiwan’s top brass claimed, 16 Chinese aircraft crossed the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait or intruded into the island’s self-declared air defense identification zone. The Taiwanese Defense Ministry mentioned, in particular, Su-30, J-11 and J-16 fighters,…

John Kirby said that the US did not manage to recover the debris of the drone, pointing out that it may be unable to do so The United States, in light of the incident with the American MQ-9 drone in the Black Sea, made Russian ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov aware of its position that Moscow should act more cautiously, US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby told CNN in an interview on Wednesday. “The message that we delivered to the Russian ambassador is that they need to be more careful in flying in international airspace near US assets…

The contagion effect from the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank is local and contained, said Credit Suisse Chairman Axel Lehmann on Wednesday. Embattled lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Silvergate were not subjected to strict enforcements that govern bigger banks in the U.S. and other parts of the world, Lehmann told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble at a panel session in Riyadh. “I look to what has happened in Silicon Valley Bank, and subsequently other midsize banks — they are not really subject to stringent regulation, as you have in other parts of the world,” he said, citing the Basel III requirement that underpins…

The XRP price stands at $0.372400 this morning, having risen by 1.2% in the past 24 hours in the context of a 2% increase for the market as a whole. Its current price means that it has fallen by 2% in a week and by 1% in the last 30 days, although the altcoin has gained by 9.5% since the start of the year. While Ripple had reported some exposure to Silicon Valley Bank, which was placed under federal receivership on Friday, CEO Brad Garlinghouse disclosed that the company expects no disruption to its day-to-day business. This seems to have steadied XRP’s…

Bitcoin’s latest resurgence, which saw the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization hit a new nine-month high in the mid-$26,000s on Tuesday, has been accompanied by a number of key technical and on-chain indicators roaring back to health and once again send a bullish BTC signal. Though the Bitcoin price has dropped back below the $25,000 mark once again as of the Wednesday Asia Pacific session, BTC is still up over 27% versus last week’s lows in the mid-$19,000s.  At the time, concerns about a series of high-profile failures of crypto/start-up/tech-friendly banks was weighing on the price. But bulls aggressively defended key long-term in…

Western policies in relation to Russian crude risk major uncertainties when clarity is most needed, the Saudi oil minister says Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman has warned Western states against capping the price of crude oil supplied by the kingdom, adding that any attempts to impose a ceiling would be met with a halt of sales and production cuts. He added that other major oil producers would most likely follow suit. “So, if a price cap were to be imposed on Saudi oil exports, we will not sell oil to any country that imposes a price cap on…

London/Abu DhabiCNN — Dubai has scrapped a 30% tax on alcohol and will no longer charge tourists or expats for permits to buy alcoholic drinks as the emirate tries to attract more foreign workers and visitors in the face of growing regional competition. Two major retailers in the city, located in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said they had slashed their prices to reflect the tax cut. “Buying your favorite drinks is now easier and cheaper than ever,” Maritime and Mercantile International (MMI) announced on its Instagram account on Sunday. MMI, one of Dubai’s biggest alcohol retailers and a subsidiary of the state-owned Emirates group,…

Volkswagen plans to invest 180 billion euros ($193 billion) over five years in areas including battery production and the sourcing of raw materials in a bid to cut electric vehicle costs and protect its market share, it said Tuesday. Over two-thirds of the company’s five-year investment budget is allocated to electrification and digitalization, including up to 15 billion ($16 billion) for batteries and raw materials. With markets in turmoil over the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, Chief Financial Officer Arno Antlitz told analysts, however, that the company could postpone some battery investments if the market did not grow as expected. “The…