Author: Steven Sahiounie

The governments in Beijing and Hong Kong have lashed out at Washington’s notice to companies doing business in the Chinese city, which warned of various risks, including retaliation for complying with US sanctions against China. The US Treasury on Friday added seven more individuals to its roster of entities sanctioned over what it sees as Beijing’s reneging on commitments to Hong Kong’s autonomy. Together with other parts of the US government, it also issued an advisory to “highlight growing risks” of doing business in the Chinese city after the passage of the highly debated National Security Law last year. The piece of legislation was…

Starting next week, unvaccinated visitors from the UK and five EU countries must submit a negative PCR or antigen test for Covid that was taken less than 24 hours before departure if they want to enter France. The deadline for a negative Covid-19 test was reduced from 48 hours before departure to 24 hours for unvaccinated travelers from the UK to France. The same deadline for visitors from Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Greece and Cyprus was reduced from 72 hours to 24. The change is set to take effect on Monday. At the same time, Prime Minister Jean Castex said…

United States President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Angela Merkel made remarks during a press conference held at the White House as they were discussing a range of issues. Most importantly, the two top officials failed to reach an agreement on Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, saying that they ‘came to different assessments as to what this project entails.’ China US President Joe Biden said, “We will stand up for democratic principles and universal rights when we see China or any other country working to undermine free and open societies.” “The Chinese government is not keeping its commitment that…

The “Israel National Cyber Directorate” said on Thursday that it has reached an accord with Morocco on cybersecurity cooperation. This is their first cyber-defense agreement, since the resumption of relations between the two parties. According to the Israeli network, “I24News”, the agreement is for operational cooperation, research and development, and information and knowledge sharing. The agreement was signed in Rabat this week by Yigal Unna, Director General of the “Israeli Cyber Directorate”, General El Mostafa Rabii, and Moroccan Defense Minister Abdellatif Loudiyi. Morocco and “Israel” announced the restart of relations in December, after they were stopped in 2000 following the…

A spokesman for the Russian Emergencies Ministry announced that all the passengers of the plane “An-28,” which disappeared earlier today, are alive. A source at the Russian Ministry of Emergency told “Sputnik” that the site of the crash had been found. Four helicopters began searching for the plane, which disappeared from radar screens on Friday while flying above the “Tomsk” region in central Russia. 17 people, including four children, were on board. Last Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Emergency announced that the bodies of 19 passengers of the An-26 plane had been found at the crash site on the Kamchatka Peninsula.…

Iran says it supports Afghan peace talks aimed at ending the violence in Afghanistan, amid an unprecedented spike in violence in the eastern neighboring country. “Iran supports an end to the violence in Afghanistan and a solution to the crisis through dialogue,” Seyyed Rasoul Mousavi, head of the West Asia Department at Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said. Mousavi made the remarks during a Kabul meeting with Abdullah Abdullah, head of Kabul’s High Council for National Reconciliation. “The Iranian people and government want an end to the long war in Afghanistan,” he reiterated. Abdullah, for his part, thanked Iran’s support for the…

China says the United States is required to take “concrete actions” and completely lift its illegal and unilateral sanctions against Iran in order to return to the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remarks during his regular press conference on Thursday in response to a question about Beijing’s view on the prospect of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on the sixth anniversary of its conclusion and amid negotiations in Vienna to revive the agreement, which was abandoned by the US in 2018. “China welcomes the fact that the…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned of a risk of the violence in Afghanistan spilling over to neighboring countries, as the Taliban militant group increases its activities in the war-ravaged country. Lavrov made the remark during a plenary session of a high-level international conference in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent on Friday. “The threat of such a scenario remains a serious obstacle to the involvement of Afghanistan in regional cooperation,” Lavrov said, adding that the situation in Afghanistan had been “rapidly degrading” in recent days. The top Russian diplomat said that the uncertainty about the development of the military and political situation in…

The Iranian foreign minister says the US government is involved in hatching assassination plots against the leaders of certain countries while accusing others of kidnapping operations to conceal its criminal acts. Mohammad Javad Zarif made the comment in a tweet posted on Friday, which was accompanied by excerpts from the American media indicating the US involvement in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise and plots for the ouster and targeted killing of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Zarif said the assassination plots against the aforementioned leaders are hatched by “US-affiliated gunmen” on American soil but the US administration “covers up its…

A Canadian indigenous group says more unmarked graves are expected to be found near former church-run residential schools as investigations continue. The Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation made the statement after releasing on Thursday its first full report on the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in May. The First Nation’s leadership announced on May 27 that 215 unmarked and previously undocumented grave sites had been found using ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia. The group said ground-surveying research in areas close to…