Author: Steven Sahiounie

The head of the Executive Council of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says all the sufferings in Lebanon today have been directly or indirectly caused by the United States. “Today, the one who has destroyed Lebanon is the United States, which continues to interfere in all of the affairs of this country,” Hashim Safi al-Din said, Lebanon’s al-Ahed news website reported on Friday. Safi al-Din pointed to the US sanctions on Lebanon, saying the US has targeted the needs of all the people of the region with sanctions. The remarks came after Lebanon’s Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri said he had abandoned his…

The Saudi-led military coalition and its mercenaries plunder “three to four million barrels” of Yemeni oil every month, Yemen’s oil director says. Executive Director of the Yemeni Oil Company Ammar al-Azra’i announced the grim news in an interview with Yemen’s Arabic-language al-Masirah television news network on Friday, saying, “We do not know where the proceeds will be deposited.” He stressed that the looting of crude oil and liquefied natural gas by the invading forces has prevented the payment of Yemenis’ salaries. Al-Azra’i said that Saudi-led forces have seized four ships near the Saudi port of Jizan, “two of which are…

A 6-year old girl was killed, with five others injured in a shooting in the District of Columbia, Washington D.C. The district’s Metropolitan Police Department said the little girl was pronounced dead at the hospital. Five others were injured, including three men and two women, whose lives are not in danger. The shooters are still unknown, and no arrests have so far been made.Last week, ATF agents and a police officer got shot amid an investigation in Chicago, Illinois. Earlier in July, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced a state of emergency in the state, in an effort to limit…

The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that its website was subjected to cyberattacks from the United States, Europe, and Turkey since July 11, when protests broke out. “We denounce that the website of our Foreign Ministry has received a denial of services (DDoS) cyberattack since July 11, 2021,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry said on its Twitter account, noting that “This attack generated false accesses in large numbers, compromising our servers.” The State Department added that the IP addresses are located in the United States, Britain, France, and Turkey, acknowledging that this may be a “disguise” for the actual source…

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is optimistic that the global oil market will recover but fears that Coronavirus variants will pose risks to the market. Mohammed Barkindo, Secretary-General of OPEC, and experts in the organization said today, Tuesday, that “global oil demand will strongly recover during the second half of 2021 with the decrease in oil stocks, warning that any Coronavirus mutated strains would pose a threat to this recovery.” Sources from OPEC+, which brings together OPEC and its Russian-led allies, revealed that next Thursday, the group is expected to discuss the gradual easing of the current…

US President Joe Biden will welcome Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi on July 26 in Washington, the White House announced. According to White House Spokesperson Jen Psaki, the Prime Minister’s visit will “highlight the strategic partnership between the United States and Iraq and advance bilateral cooperation under the Strategic Framework Agreement.” Psaki continued, “The visit will also focus on key areas of shared interest including through education, health, cultural, energy, and climate initiatives” adding that, “President Biden also looks forward to strengthening bilateral cooperation with Iraq on political, economic, and security issues to include joint efforts to ensure the enduring…

The death toll from devastating floods in Europe has grown to 153 as of Saturday morning. Belgium will observe a day of mourning for the victims on July 20. German authorities confirmed that 90 people have died in the Rhineland-Palatinate region, and 43 have died in neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia. Rescue helicopters, fire crews and the military were deployed to the western German regions after rivers burst their banks due to heavy rainfall. The powerful flow of water swept up cars and destroyed houses in rural areas. Local media previously reported that many residents were unaccounted for because the phone connection…

Scores of Palestinian protesters have been injured in clashes with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) near an evacuated illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, the Palestine Red Crescent has said. At least 10 Palestinians were shot and injured by live fire, the medical organization said, adding that 15 more were injured by rubber bullets, according to Haaretz newspaper. The condition of those who were shot is unclear. More than 45 people had to be treated by medics after being suffocated by tear gas used by the Israeli military to disperse the crowd, Haaretz reported, while the Jerusalem Post said that…

A gamer believed to be a Challenger 2 commander has apparently decided that preserving state secrets is less important than proving to a game company that its digital model of the British main battle tank is inaccurate. A funny and potentially criminal episode unfolded this week on the forums of ‘War Thunder’, a popular competitive video game in which players take control of various real-life military vehicles. Projects like this one attract the attention of accuracy nerds, who push designers to get every little detail right. It seems one such person may have breached the UK Official Secrets Act, by…

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…