Author: Steven Sahiounie

TOKYO: Asian factory activity expanded in May as manufacturers benefited from broadening global demand, private surveys showed on Monday, adding to hopes for sustained economic recovery in the region where China is showing early signs of rebound.

European stocks bounced and government bond yields dropped on Monday as investors looked forward to an interest rate cut from the European Central Bank (ECB), while U.S. jobs data kept the focus squarely on inflation.

Russia’s finance ministry has raised its estimate of this year’s budget deficit to 2.12 trillion roubles ($23.76 billion) or 1.1% of gross domestic product, according to budget amendments submitted by the government to parliament.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said on Monday that the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israel has killed more than 36,400 Palestinians since October, is approaching “catastrophic” levels. “Almost all major international organizations have called the humanitarian situation in Palestine unacceptable. In fact, it is approaching catastrophic,” Tokayev said during a meeting with the heads of parliament of Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states in the city of Almaty, according to a presidential statement. Expressing that their meeting on the sidelines of the CSTO’s Parliamentary Assembly meeting is taking place in “conditions of unprecedented aggravation of the international situation,” Tokayev…

Russia strongly condemns Israeli airstrikes on the outskirts of Syria’s Aleppo; these aggressive actions grossly violate Syria’s sovereignty and international law, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. “Moscow strongly condemns these aggressive actions, which come in gross violation of Syria’s sovereignty and basic rules of international law,” the ministry stressed. “Such use of force, which in the current tense regional situation can lead to extremely dangerous consequences and trigger a large-scale armed escalation, are unacceptable,” it added. The Russian Foreign Ministry “once again urges the Israeli leadership to abandon this vicious practice fraught with uncontrolled destabilization of the situation in the…

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Guinea, where he will begin a new African tour, a TASS correspondent reported. The top Russian diplomat is scheduled to meet with the country’s political leadership in Conakry. Lavrov’s last working visit to Guinea was in February 2013. “Russian-Guinean relations are friendly. There is an active political dialogue,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said. On July 27, 2001, a declaration on the principles of friendly relations and partnership between Russia and Guinea was signed in Moscow. Since 2002, the Russian-Guinean intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific, technical and trade cooperation has been working. On September…

The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Qatar and Egypt said on Monday it was important to “deal seriously and positively” with a proposal presented by US President Joe Biden that would lead to a ceasefire in Gaza. Biden on Friday presented what he labelled an Israeli three-phase plan that would end the conflict in Gaza, free all hostages and lead to the reconstruction of the devastated Palestinian territory without Hamas in power. The foreign ministers met virtually to discuss the proposal and US-Qatari-Egyptian mediating efforts for a swap deal of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners that would…

The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that an Israeli fighter jet launched an airstrike on the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday night, resulting in the killing and injury of several people. The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced that Israeli fighter jets launched an aerial attack on the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday night, resulting in several martyrs and injuries. The statement clarified, “At approximately 12:20 am on June 3, 2024, the Israeli enemy launched an airstrike from the direction of southeast Aleppo, targeting some sites around Aleppo. The attack led to several martyrs and some material losses.” Footage showed fires…

Lebanon wants to avoid a wider war and is looking for sustainable solutions that restore calm and stability to the south, Foreign Minister Abdullah Bou Habib said on Monday. His remarks at a joint press conference in Beirut with acting Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani came as Hezbollah said it launched a squadron of drones toward the headquarters of the Israeli military’s Galilee formation. An Israeli military drone targeted a car on Monday on the road between the villages of Kharayeb, Zrariyeh, and Kauthariyet Al-Rez with four rockets, killing one person. The acting Iranian foreign minister arrived in Beirut on Monday for…

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said today that the State of Palestine filed in the Registry of the Court an application for permission to intervene and a declaration of intervention in the South Africa case against Israel concerning Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the ICJ said the State of Palestine submitted its request on May 31. The Palestinian request comes within the framework of Palestine’s commitment to continue taking all legal steps at the international level to defend the rights of the Palestinian…