Author: Steven Sahiounie

Russian military police units in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah have reportedly prevented a US convoy from entering a strategic city, amid escalation between the two sides over freedom of movement in the mainly Kurdish-inhabited region. The Arabic-service of Russia’s Sputnik news agency reported that Russian forces blocked the main road of Tannuriyah village, which lies 10 kilometers (six miles) east of Qamishli, for the first time on Saturday and did not allow American troops to continue their journey towards the city. The report added that at least eight Russian armored vehicles stopped the American patrol for several hours, in a retaliatory move…

Clashes in Socotra continued as the United Arab Emirates funded STC fought to wrest control of the provincial capital Hadebo. Explosions rocked Yemen’s Socotra archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site, Friday, as an armed unit funded by the United Arab Emirates fought to wrest control of the provincial capital Hadebo, the former prime minister and witnesses said. The unit is part of the UAE-backed separatist Southern Transitional Council, which declared self-rule earlier this week in the south, sparking fears of new violence in the country already mired in more than five years of civil war. The governors of Socotra and several other southern provinces rejected the…

Damascus has estimated that it will cost between $200 and $400 billion to rebuild the infrastructure damaged or destroyed during the foreign-backed-civil war which kicked off in 2011. It remains unclear where the money will come from, as the US and its Syrian Kurdish militia allies have taken control of much of Syria’s oil-rich eastern territories. Syrian troops have demined another 1.7 hectares (4.2 acres) of territory in the past 24 hours, the Russian Defence Ministry’s Centre for Reconciliation has reported. “Over the past 24 hours, Syrian Army engineering units performed mine clearance in Abril, Duma, Mazraat Mahmoud and Haush…

The Government of National Accord (GNA) forces, bombed a strategic airbase in the western countryside of Tripoli, today, the GNA’s official Facebook page announced. “The Air Force carried out 3 airstrikes a short time ago on Al-Watiyah Airbase, targeting the mechanisms and concentrations of the Haftar terrorist militia at the base,” Mohammed Qanunu, a spokesman for the GNA said in a brief statement released by their media center on Facebook. The type of aircraft used by the GNA forces not revealed; however, in the past, they have used both Turkish-supplied drones and Russian-made jets. Libya is going through a political…

Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) crashed in the district of Arada near the Mitiga International Airport. The semi-civilian airport, located east of Tripoli, is known to be hosting Turkish troops. Sources close to the Libyan National Army (LNA) said the UCAV was shot down by the army, right after taking off from the Mitiga International Airport. These claims are yet to be verified by any independent source. Local sources released photos showing the wreckage of the Bayraktar TB2 in Arada. The UCAV was apparently armed with at least one MAM-L laser-guided small-diameter munition The Bayraktar TB2, which…

Russian health officials have recorded 7,933 new Covid-19 cases since Thursday, according to the daily update. It brings the total number of coronavirus infections in the country to 114,431. Moscow remains the biggest hotbed for the outbreak, with roughly half of the identified cases localized in the capital. The death toll in Russia stands at 1,169, after 96 more people succumbed to the disease, while 13,220 have successfully recovered from the disease. On Thursday, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tested positive for coronavirus. He revealed his diagnosis during a video link with President Vladimir Putin. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrey Belousov is acting…

by Rishikesh Kumar Despite implementing the world’s most extensive lockdown for around two months, the approval rating of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is up; making him more popular than other world leaders. However, some have criticised India’s government for using military assets to express solidarity with those fighting COVID-19. People from different strata of Indian society have criticised the government and service chiefs for deploying military assets across the country, including at sea, to express gratitude towards civilian frontline workers on Sunday. “Given the deep resources of transport, logistics, medical facilities and manpower, our military could have served citizens in…

Earlier, the US national intelligence director’s office said that they agreed with “the wide scientific consensus that the COVID-19 virus was not manmade or genetically modified”. There is “enormous evidence” that the coronavirus came from a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. Despite his criticism of China’s response to the outbreak, Pompeo did not say directly if he thought that the virus had been released on purpose, AFP reported. This comes after the US national intelligence director’s office said earlier this week that they agreed…

by Ilya Tsukanov After weeks of speculation fueled by a lengthy absence, the North Korean leader suddenly reappeared in public on May 1 at the opening of a new fertilizer plant, dispelling rumours that he was dead or ‘gravely ill’. Kim Jong-un’s surprise reemergence in public after weeks of speculation regarding his health raise a couple of important questions, specifically: how did the rumours get started, and who was behind them? Queries regarding the North Korean leader’s whereabouts began swirling in mid-April, after he missed the public celebration of the Day of the Sun, the all-important April 15 anniversary of the birth…

US stocks are facing a second straight day of losses, after President Donald Trump threatened to unleash a new barrage of retaliatory tariffs on China over the coronavirus crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell over 400 points while both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite lost around two percent.Thus all three indexes extended Thursday losses that came on gloomy jobless data. Most European and Asian markets were closed for holidays on Friday. The London Stock Exchange was one of the few working, with the FTSE 100 index dropping almost two percent. In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei closed down nearly three percent The…