Author: Steven Sahiounie

YouTube has suspended one of the largest media companies in Australia, local Sky News, from posting on its platform for allegedly breaching Covid-19 misinformation policies. It has also reportedly had some of its videos removed. The one-week suspension was issued following a review of Sky News Australia’s “old videos,” the channel announced on Sunday. Under the terms of the temporary ban, for seven days, YouTube will allow no videos or livestreams to be posted by the channel, which has 1.86 million subscribers, and some earlier videos about coronavirus have been reportedly permanently deleted from the platform. The ban was issued after…

The airport in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second-largest city, has come under rocket attack, forcing the cancelation of all flights, as the Taliban seeks to recapture its former stronghold. At least three rockets were launched towards Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport on Sunday, with two of the projectiles hitting the runway, airport chief Massoud Pashtun said, as quoted by the news agency AFP. All flights have been canceled, but are expected to resume later in the day, as the runway is being repaired, the official said. A Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters the airport was targeted because it was being used…

A French hospital union boss has said a health pass will not be enough to curb another wave of Covid-19, and urged the government to make vaccination compulsory for everyone. “We no longer have the luxury of taking half-measures,” Frederic Valletoux, the head of the Hospital Federation of France (FHF) and the mayor of Fontainebleau, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper. “Everywhere, the indicators are going up again. The context of the epidemic shows us the limits of intermediate measures.” Pointing to the “unprecedented speed of the fourth wave” of infections, Valletoux said the government should “assume the course of compulsory [measures] along with…

The Swedish Armed Forces have paid for a pro-LGBTQ ad in one of the country’s leading newspapers, featuring soldiers standing beneath a rainbow flag. The campaign has provoked some fiery discussions online. The front-page ad in the Svenska Dagbladet daily features a group of soldiers in full combat gear, one holding a large rainbow flag. The text at the top of the image reads, “A flag worth defending,” and, in smaller print below, it says, “We defend human rights, equality for all, and our right to live as we choose.” The ad was published ahead of the week-long Stockholm Pride festival, which kicks…

Israel is preparing to get rid of some 80,000 Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine doses after their shelf life expired. Previously, the Jewish state had salvaged some 700,000 nearly expired doses by sending them to South Korea in a swap deal. Even though its campaign to inoculate elderly Israelis with a booster shot has only just been launched, Tel Aviv is reportedly poised to destroy thousands of vaccine doses that expired at the end of July, Israeli media reported on Saturday. Some 80,000 unused doses, worth around $1.8 million, are expected to be “thrown in the trash,” Israel’s Channel 12 news reported. The government’s frantic…

Israeli Occupation Foreign Minister and US Secretary of State Anthony to work with the UK, Romania and other international partners in investigating the targeting of the Israeli ship. Blinken and Lapid ahead of their meeting in Rome on Jun 27,2021 The Israeli Occupation’s Foreign Minister and the US Secretary of State agreed to “work with the United Kingdom, Romania, and other international partners to investigate the facts, provide support, and consider the appropriate next steps,” according to a statement by US State Department Spokesperson Ned Price. Lapid called for an international response “in the face of Iranian terrorism, which also harms freedom…

According to the latest coronavirus data released by the UK government, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county has soared to 5.8 million, with 129,654 fatalities as of Saturday. British medical scientists have argued that the UK may be hit by thousands of COVID deaths every winter because the disease will most likely join other seasonal viruses, including influenza, in the immediate future. The Guardian cited Professor Adam Finn of Bristol University as saying that Britons “are going to see problems with COVID for a long time”, given that the virus “has shown itself to be genetically more nimble…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Disputes have popped up between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the war in Yemen, Syria and OPEC quotas. There has always been a rivalry, but in recent years the relationship between the two oil-rich nations was seen as warm and friendly. Now, the friendship seems to have gone cold. This month, Saudi officials placed border tariffs on goods produced by foreign workers in neighboring countries, and the UAE and Dubai in particular, is most affected, due to its foreign-dominated manufacturing sector that exports to the region. Arab Gulf experts are…

The attack that killed two people aboard an Israeli-operated vessel off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea on Thursday, is believed to have been a drone strike, US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, which operates in the region, has said. American explosives experts, who have examined the Mercer Street product tanker, have discovered “clear visual evidence that an attack had occurred” on the ship, the Fifth Fleet said, in a statement on Saturday. “Initial indications clearly point to a (drone)-style attack,” it stated, without elaborating on how such a conclusion was reached. Two US warships – nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and…

Brisbane is headed for another “snap” lockdown, following six new local coronavirus infections, forcing most residents in Australia’s third-most populous city and other regions of Queensland to stay at home until next week. Queensland officials announced the three-day lockdown on Saturday morning, with state premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urging locals not to venture beyond their homes until the measures expire on August 3, with a few exceptions. The new snap shutdown order comes after just six new cases were tallied on Saturday, along with one imported from abroad. “We received the advice of the chief health officer, and the premier has…