Author: Steven Sahiounie

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…

AFP reported Sunday that a blast was heard in the Afghan capital, Kabul. As per Sputnik, one of their correspondents on the ground reported that the blast occurred near the Kabul airport. A security source at the Kabul police told Sputnik that the blast was due to a rocket hitting the capital’s 15th district. A Taliban official announced Sunday that the movement is working with the US forces withdrawing from Afghanistan to hand over the authority over the Kabul airport. This explosion came three days after an attack shook the Kabul airport, which the western forces are using to complete…

Europe, under the guise of providing the conditions for ‘long-term’ security and stability in Afghanistan, entered the country, and the rest is history. Havoc, destruction, death, and misery infested the Southern Asian country, placing it among the world’s poorest. A New Age Crusade Following the September 11 attacks, the United States developed an interest in “combatting terrorism,” prompting the country known for “exporting democracy” to the rest of the world to launch what was called the “War on Terror”—an international military campaign whose goal was to eradicate terrorism abroad, not for the safety of the populace, but rather for that…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Iraq is back, and stands center stage in the Middle Eastern drama of blood and sand. In a regional summit, which is being called it a turning point, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi co-hosts the Baghdad Conference on Cooperation and Partnership. Kadhimi’s co-host is French President Emmanuel Macron, who remained in Iraq two-days for meetings with French Special Forces fighting ISIS, as well as a trip to Erbil in the North. The meeting, dubbed the Iraq Neighborhood Summit, has not included Iraq’s neighbor to the west, Syria, but has brought key regional officials…

Afghanistan, all marred in a bloody scene, after two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans near Kabul Airport yesterday, Thursday. The attacks killed at least 60 Afghans and 13 US troops, reported both Afghan and US officials. US, Afghan official statements The US Department of Defense confirmed the killing of 3 soldiers in a bus bombing that targeted a hotel where Americans live in the Afghan capital, while the 10 other soldiers were killed in two suicide attacks near Kabul airport. On its part, the Afghan Ministry of Health announced that the number of civilian deaths has risen…

Today, Friday, US President Joe Biden said that the attack in Kabul was carried out by a group called “ISIS-Khorasan” (ISIS-K), addressing the perpetrators saying, “We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will hunt you down and make you pay.” Biden vows retaliation In a speech the US President delivered following the Kabul bombings, he said that more than 12,000 people have been evacuated during the past 12 hours, stressing that he is closely following the developments in Afghanistan. US President Biden expressed his outrage and sorrow over what happened.  “Our hearts are broken,” he said. The US President…