Author: Steven Sahiounie

Yemen’s allied defense forces have decisively escalated their counterattacks on Saudi Arabia’s allies in Ma’rib, the capital of a hugely strategic west-central Yemeni province of the same name, and are reportedly on the verge of recapturing the whole city. The Yemeni army and Popular Committees were reported on Tuesday to have advanced as far as the city’s “government buildings.” The advancements were made possible, despite heavy Saudi bombardment of the flashpoints in the city from above, Yemen Press Agency reported. It came after the forces successfully pushed back against the kingdom’s allies there, namely Riyadh-backed militants and al-Qaeda terrorists, the…

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) governor says the bank is planning to issue deposit bonds, a new type of security approved by the lender’s Shariah advisory arm, as it seeks to contain inflation through reducing the amount of money supply in the country. Akbar Komeijani said on Tuesday that the CBI has been making preparations to issue the deposit bonds, or what will be locally known as Oragh Wadiaa. “We hope we can use this instrument this year (to March) to control money base and the inflation rate,” said Koemijani while addressing Iran’s Islamic Banking Conference, a annual gathering…

With the last US troops leaving Afghanistan after a devastating bombing, President Joe Biden has described the chaotic evacuation of Kabul as an “extraordinary success” the likes of which “no nation has done in all of history.” “Last night in Kabul, the US ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history,” Biden told reporters on Tuesday, almost a day after the last US plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The retreat from Afghanistan didn’t just mark an end to that war, he said, but an end to an era of military operations “to remake other…

Scientists have discovered a tiny island off the coast of Greenland last month, describing it as the world’s northernmost point of land, revealed by shifting pack ice. Polar Explorer and Head of the Arctic Station Research Facility in Greenland, Morten Rasch, divulged that “it was not our intention to discover a new island,” adding “we just went there to collect samples.” The scientists initially believed they had arrived at Oodaaq, an island discovered in 1978 by a Danish survey team. When they checked the exact location, they discovered they had visited another island 780 meters to the northwest. “Everybody was happy that…

Drinking coffee has been associated with a number of health benefits, from a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease to a lower risk of Parkinson’s disease. Simultaneously, a new study finds that drinking up to three cups of coffee per day may protect your heart. When compared to non-coffee drinkers, regular coffee consumption of 0.5 to 3 cups of coffee per day was associated with a lower risk of death from heart disease, stroke, and premature death from any cause. The study, which was presented Friday at the annual meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, looked at the coffee-drinking habits of…

Yemenis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) assistance; access to clean and safe drinking water remains crucial for the good health and survival of a whole nation, according to the United Nations (UN). The International Organization for Migration (IOM) tweeted that Yemen is suffering from the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, as nearly 15.4 million people lack access to safe water and sanitation.  The organization provided 2.1 million Yemenis with water, sanitation, and hygiene services last year. The United Nations recently announced that every ten minutes, a child dies in Yemen from preventable causes, including hunger and…

Starbucks has 8,000 branches in the US and still counting…So it should be relatively easy for it to allow its workers to unionize, right? Wrong. If it were right, these 50 Starbucks employees in Buffalo, New York, wouldn’t have struggled this much to form a union in a clear clash with the giant coffee corporation’s interests. In a letter to the Starbucks CEO, Kevin Johnson, the group announced its plan to form Starbucks Workers United, an organization committee that is bound to cover all branches across the US. Starbucks is notorious for its record of opposing unionization and regularly firing…

A US Marine lieutenant colonel who demanded accountability from the military’s top brass over the withdrawal from Afghanistan in a video has been fired and will leave the elite US military corps. US Marine Corps lieutenant colonel Stuart Scheller posted a video to Facebook and LinkedIn on Thursday, the day 13 US service members, 11 of them Marines, and as many as 170 Afghans, were killed in a bomb attack at the airport in Kabul. “Not making this video because it’s potentially an emotional time,” Scheller voiced in the video. “Making it because I have a growing discontent and contempt for … perceived…

The Taliban’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced the formation of a new Afghan government next week, anticipating the end of the economic crisis. In an interview with Reuters, Mujahid condemned the US raid that killed two ISIS militants after a suicide attack near Kabul airport. The US Department of Defense announced the killing of two ISIS militants on Saturday, after the group claimed responsibility for the explosion in Kabul last Thursday which killed more than 100 people, including 13 American troops.  A Taliban official, who asked to remain unnamed, divulged to Reuters on Sunday that the Taliban is awaiting the final signal from the Americans to take full…

The US Department of Defense announced that the US forces have begun withdrawing from the Kabul airport and are working to transfer their equipment. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, confirmed during a press conference that Washington is monitoring the threats surrounding its forces in Kabul at the moment, at a time when it began to withdraw from the airport. For his part, the Pentagon’s deputy director of regional operations, William Taylor, divulged that the transfer of military equipment by aircraft is currently underway. On Saturday, a US official revealed that the number of US forces at Kabul Airport decreased from 5,800…