Author: Steven Sahiounie

Japan set a second-straight monthly record for visitors in July, official data showed on Friday, as the weak yen and summer holidays propelled a tourism boom.

Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty expressed his hope during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday that the upcoming round of Gaza ceasefire negotiations will see a genuine Israeli political will to end the war on the Gaza Strip. He asserted that the ceasefire is the only way to put an end to the humanitarian suffering in the strip, according to a statement by the foreign ministry. The political will, he added, is essential to prevent the regional situation from spiralling out of control and escalating to a level that threatens the stability and peace of the…

Moscow and Beijing should jointly defend their interests and the principles of the multipolar world order in the conditions of Western sanctions pressure, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a meeting with Chinese State Council Premier Li Qiang. “We are in a difficult external situation. Western countries are imposing illegitimate sanctions under far-fetched pretexts,” Mishustin recalled. “They are trying to maintain their global dominance and contain the economic and technological potential of Russia and China,” he said. “But, as our Chinese friends say, ‘whoever follows the path of justice has many helpers,'” the prime minister pointed out. “That is…

Dozens of activists in Chicago, Illinois, continue to demonstrate throughout the city and in front of the Democratic National Convention headquarters, denouncing the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and expressing their rejection of the unprecedented support for the occupying state. Thousands also demonstrated in front of the Israeli consulate to protest the continuation of the aggression on the Gaza Strip for more than ten months. Activists called for the need to take urgent action to stop the war in the Gaza Strip and stop sending weapons to Israel, the occupying state, which is using it to commit genocide against…

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the latest state efforts to secure a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in a phone call on Wednesday, Turkiye’s foreign ministry spokesperson said.Spokesperson Oncu Keceli also said the call had taken place at the request of the US side, adding the two ministers also discussed regional developments. He did not provide any further details.  Source: Arab News

In war-ravaged Gaza, death appears to be the “only certainty” for 2.4 million Palestinians with no way to escape Israel’s relentless bombardment, a UN official said Tuesday, recounting the growing desperation across the territory.“It does feel like people are waiting for death. Death seems to be the only certainty in this situation,” Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, told AFP from Gaza.For the past two weeks, Wateridge has been in the Gaza Strip, witnessing the humanitarian crisis, fear of death and spread of disease as the war rages on.“Nowhere in the…

The Turkish foreign minister on Tuesday spoke by phone with his Dutch counterpart and discussed different issues, including Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Hakan Fidan and Caspar Veldkamp discussed bilateral relations, the situation in Gaza, and developments in Ukraine during their phone call, according to diplomatic sources. Source: Anadolu Agency

Azerbaijan has officially applied for BRICS membership, the country’s foreign ministry spokesman, Aykhan Hajizada, said. “Azerbaijan has filed an official application for joining BRICS,” Azerbaijan’s Report news agency quoted him as saying. Baku’s intention to join BRICS was reflected in a joint declaration on strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and China, which was signed on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana in early July. Apart from that, Azerbaijani parliament speaker, Sakhiba Gafarova, said at a plenary session of the 10th BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St. Petersburg on July 11 that her country wants to be a full-fledged BRICS…

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) held a meeting today chaired by President Mahmoud Abbas. During the meeting, the committee reviewed the President’s initiative which he announced before the Grand Turkish National Assembly. The initiative included his decision to go to the Gaza Strip with members of the Palestinian leadership. In his initiative, President Abbas called on the leaders of Arab and Islamic, the good people in the world and the Secretary-General of the United Nations to join him to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, calling on the UN Security Council to secure…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Anthony Blinken left Doha on August 20 empty handed. He had been pushing Israel and Hamas to come to a ceasefire agreement, but the negotiations appear to have once again failed to find peace for the people in Gaza, who have suffered over 40,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of injuries since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas. The US supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his revenge attack on Gaza, which has been termed genocide by the UN. However, the US President Joe Biden administration has forcefully demanded that Netanyahu…