Author: Steven Sahiounie

The U.S. is hindering a plan to conduct an assessment health mission in the al-Rukban Camp in the 55-km occupied zone in southeast Syria, the joint coordination headquarters of Russia and Syria announced on April 22. The joint headquarters said in an official statement that the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent an official request for the UN to conduct an assessment health mission in al-Rukban to assess the humanitarian situation and study the real situation with the spread of COVID-19 there. The UN supported the Syrian initiative. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) advised a questionable plan to implement…

US coronavirus deaths topped 45,000 on Tuesday doubling in a little over a week and rising by a near-record amount in a single day, according to a Reuters tally. The United States has by far the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases at over 810,000, almost four times as many as Spain, the country with the second-highest number. Globally, cases topped 2.5 million on Tuesday. US deaths increased by more than 2,750 on Tuesday alone, just shy of a peak of 2,806 deaths in a single day on April 15. New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan each reported their highest single-day coronavirus-related…

Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has successfully launched and placed the country’s first military satellite into the orbit. The elite force fired the satellite — dubbed Nour (Light)-1 — aboard Qased (Carrier) satellite carrier during an operation that was staged in Dasht-e Kavir, Iran’s sprawling central desert, on Wednesday, the Corps’ Sepah News reported. The satellite was placed into the orbit 425 kilometers above Earth’s surface. The Tasnim News Agency, meanwhile, carried a report outlining some details of the launch and the country’s space activities. The report described Nour-1 as Iran’s first multi-purpose satellite with application in the defense…

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who tested positive for COVID-19 on 27 March, is currently based at his Chequers residence. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is standing in for the prime minister as he continues his recovery. The UK Department of Health and Social Care on 22 April confirmed 700 deaths of COVID-19 over the past 24 hours, bringing the total to 18,100. The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has risen to 133,495, it added. Several leading UK political figures, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, have also tested positive for the coronavirus disease. On 23 March, the UK introduced lockdown measures…

by Tim Korso Years later, the former terrorist number one and head of Al Qaeda* became the mastermind behind the tragic 9/11 attacks on the US. The CIA had a shot at taking down former Al Qaeda* leader Osama bin Laden back in the 1990s, but was prohibited from doing so by order of then US President Bill Clinton, former agency station chief Bob Grenier revealed in the Showtime documentary “The Longest War”. According to him, “lethal activity” against bin Laden was sanctioned only on the condition that it wouldn’t result in his death, the former CIA agent clarified. “Our tribal contacts came…

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to cripple the world economy, global investors are desperately seeking safe havens. However, this time they opted to pick neither US bonds, nor gold, nor the Japanese yen, but Chinese government debt. Chinese economic researcher Xu Xuemei has explained the new trend. Global investors have doubled down on acquiring 10-year Chinese government yuan-denominated bonds amid the coronavirus pandemic. During the first quarter alone, foreign investors ploughed 59.7 billion yuan ($8.42 billion) into the Chinese interbank bond market, according to the People’s Bank of China. By the end of March 2020, a total of 2.26 trillion…

The statement by POTUS comes several months after the two countries were on the verge of open hostilities after a US Air Force strike killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani while the latter was visiting Iraq on a diplomatic mission in January 2020. US President Donald Trump announced via his Twitter that he has given the green light to the American Navy to attack and sink small Iranian military vessels if they start harassing US military ships. A spokesperson for the Iranian Armed Forces has responded to the president’s tweet by advising Washington to focus on saving its own military from the coronavirus outbreak…

Earlier in the day, the price of Brent oil fell below $25 per barrel for the first time since 1 April, while WTI fell into negative territory again. The New York Stock Exchange opens its doors on Tuesday following an historic drop in oil prices amid lowering demand for energy. US crude prices plunged below zero per barrel on Monday, dragging down the general market as well, as the Dow Jones Industrial index dropped by 2.44%. This comes as OPEC+ members along with several other oil-exporting countries struck an agreement to reduce global crude output between 2020 and 2022 on…

Oil prices plunged below zero on Monday as demand for energy collapses amid the coronavirus pandemic. Traders, meanwhile, are worried they could get stuck owning crude with nowhere to store it. Stocks were also slipping on Wall Street in afternoon trading, with the S&P 500 down 0.9%, but the market’s most dramatic action was by far in oil, where benchmark U.S. crude for May delivery plummeted to negative $3.70 per barrel, as of 2:15 pm. Eastern time. Much of the drop into negative territory was chalked up to technical reasons — the May delivery contract is close to expiring so it…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator The last Syrian ‘rebel’ unit on the US payroll is dissolving by desertions. A former senior officer in the US-backed mercenary unit Maghaweir al-Thowra (MAT) deserted his unit in Syria on April 14. Samir Ghannam al-Khidr deserted the Eastern Syrian desert along with his whole family and 26 armed men. The convoy was subject to a video on social media, which showed 8 pickups, 1 truck, 11 small arms, including 5 M-16 rifles, 4 large-caliber machine guns, 5 grenade launchers and 6-7 thousand rounds of ammunition. All of the vehicles and weaponry were US…