Author: Steven Sahiounie

US oil prices dived to 22-year lows at just $11 Monday after crashing almost 40 percent in a market flooded with crude and slammed by evaporating demand in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Just before 1200 GMT, the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for May delivery tanked to $11.04 — the lowest level since 1998. Trade, however, was also technically driven as investors closed out their positions ahead of the May contract expiry Monday. The June contract was down 11.9 percent at $22.06. “The real problem of the global supply-demand imbalance has started to really manifest itself…

China has called for a stronger testing regime in an attempt to ensure all cases of the novel coronavirus have been detected, despite a drop in new virus infections in the country. China’s National Health Commission announced the decision on Monday, quoting its director Ma Xiaowei as saying that all localities must improve their testing capabilities, including those at border crossings, and report any epidemic information in a timely manner. The coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease known as COVID-19, emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in Hubei province late last year, incrementally affecting the rest of the…

Unidentified armed men have attacked a military vehicle of the US forces in Syria’s easternmost province of Hasakah, a report by Syria’s official news agency says. SANA, citing civil sources, reported on Monday that the vehicle, transporting American troops and members of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), came under attack outside Roueished village, south of the province. The report added that the assault on the Kharafi road destroyed the vehicle and inflicted wounds on a number of the American troops. Just recently, SANA, citing local sources, reported that a US convoy, consisting of 35 vehicles carrying cement blocks and logistic supplies,…

A Russian Su-35 has conducted a second “unsafe” intercept of a US surveillance jet in the Mediterranean in four days, flying once again within just 25 feet of a P-8A Poseidon, the US Navy said in a statement. “On 19 April 2020, a US Navy P-8A aircraft flying in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea was intercepted twice by a Russian SU-35 over a period of 100 minutes. The first intercept was deemed safe and professional. The second intercept was determined to be unsafe and unprofessional due to the SU-35 a conducting high-speed, high-powered maneuver that decreased aircraft separation to…

The hmeimim Air Base in Latakia, northwest Syria is among the most heavily-defended Russian military facilities abroad, containing advanced radar, a contingent of fighter aircraft, and S-400 air defence systems. A Russian Su-35 fighter jet detected a US military reconnaissance aircraft flying toward Russian military facilities in Syria, the Ministry of Defence has announced. The incident, said to have taken place Sunday, took place after a fighter was scrambled from the Khmeimim airbase to confront an identified aerial target that was heading toward Russian positions in Syria. The unidentified aircraft turned out to have been a US Navy plane, the…

The new coronavirus outbreak has now claimed the lives of 160,706 people across the world, and more than 2,328,600 others are infected, according to the latest data collected by Johns Hopkins University (JHU). Here are the latest on the coronavirus pandemic from around the world: Italy reports low daily rise in deaths In Italy, the country with the second highest deaths after the United States, the deaths from the respiratory illness rose by 482 on Saturday, the lowest daily increase since April 12. That brought the total death toll to 23,227. And the number of Italy’s new cases was stable…

At least three civilians have been killed and another sustained injuries when militiamen loyal to the country’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi shelled a residential neighborhood in Yemen’s southern province of Ta’izz despite a two-week ‘ceasefire’ declared by the Saudi-led coalition. Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that the Saudi mercenaries fired projectiles at Wadi Hanash village in the At Ta’iziyah district of the province of province of Sunday afternoon. The sources added that two women and a child were killed whilst a man was injured when their house was struck in the shelling. Separately,…

In January 2020 members of the Iraqi parliament said the country was mulling the purchase of advanced Russian S-400 missile systems amid concerns that Washington might stop supporting Iraq and providing it with modern air defence armaments. The Parliamentary Security and Defence Committee of Iraq submitted a detailed study requesting the purchase of Russian long-range, surface-to-air S-400 missile defence systems for the consideration of the country’s caretaker prime minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi on 18 April. “The issue has already been discussed with relevant figures at the General Command of Armed Forces, and now awaits the prime minister’s agreement,” committee member Badr al-Ziyadi was…

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif will visit Damascus on Monday, where he will meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad to discuss the situation in the Arab country. “During this one-day trip, he [Zarif] will discuss with Syrian President Bashar Assad and [Syrian] Foreign Minister Walid Muallem bilateral relations, the development of the situation in the region, as well as political changes and the development of the situation ‘on the ground’ in the fight against terrorism,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in a statement. This is Zarif’s first visit outside Iran in almost two months due to the coronavirus…

As of 19 April, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the UK stands at 114,221, with 15,464 deaths, according to the World Health Organisation. The UK has reported a rise in hospital coronavirus fatalities from 15,464 on Saturday to 16,060 on Sunday. According to the country’s health ministry, this has been the smallest increase in about two weeks. As of 19 April, the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK stands at 114,221, with 15,464 fatalities, according to the World Health Organisation.