Author: Steven Sahiounie

Senegal on Wednesday announced that a delayed presidential election will be held on March 24, after a top court ruled that a proposal to further push them back was unconstitutional. The elections were initially scheduled on February 25. President Macky Sall had proposed to push the elections to April 2, the day his mandate expires, however, the opposition accused him of attempting to carry out a coup after filing for a second delay He had earlier proposed to hold the elections in December, which led to the eruption of deadly protests across the country. On Wednesday, President Sall dissolved the government and replaced Prime Minister…

The European People’s Party (EPP) endorsed the incumbent president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, 65, for a second five-year term as the chief of the Commission at a gathering in the Romanian capital. As many as 400 delegates voted for von der Leyen’s nomination with 89 votes against. Her nomination did not come as a surprise as she was the only candidate from the EPP. source: TASS

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev has attributed French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement regarding the possibility of sending NATO forces to Ukraine to the failure of Kiev’s counter-offensive and the successful actions of the Russian army in the special military operation. “The collective West is trying to push ahead with its unrealistic plans for inflicting a strategic defeat on our country in Ukraine using the neo-Nazi terrorist regime. By continuing to provide large-scale military and military-technical assistance, the West is actually participating in the armed conflict,” Patrushev said at a meeting in Magas on national security issues in the regions…

The US is challenged not by China, but by its own unwillingness to accept that another great power may be its equal, Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, said on Thursday. Relations between great powers must be based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence, and win-win cooperation, the foreign minister, who is also responsible for foreign policy in the Communist Party of China, told a press conference in Beijing. Yet Washington is apparently unwilling to abide by those principles. Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden agreed to deescalate trade tensions during their meeting last November, but Washington has failed…

The UN’s food agency on Thursday said it was pressing Israel to allow it to use the Ashdod port north of Gaza to make it easier to reach starving Palestinians.“We have several requests with the Israelis,” World Food Programme (WFP) Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP in Rome, after its latest failed attempt to get food to northern Gaza.“We want to use the Ashdod port, which would be much more efficient than going through Jordan or even Egypt,” Skau said.Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, Gaza has been plunged into a food crisis, with outside…

In a collaborative effort led by the Turkish Red Crescent, another ship carrying 2,737 tons of humanitarian aid departed from Türkiye’s southern Mersin province for war-torn Gaza strip on Thursday. The supplies include food packages, water, flour, clothing, hygiene products, tents, sleeping bags, blankets, shelter materials, and medical supplies, among others. In a ceremony before the goods left for Gaza, Turkish Red Crescent President Fatma Meric Yilmaz Türkiye said the aid will reach Egypt’s Al-Arish port, from where it will be loaded onto trucks for its intended destination. Türkiye has been working to support Palestine, and so far had sent…

Former US President Trump says he would watch the State of the Union address this week and “will correct, in rapid response” Biden’s speech – taking a jab at the multiple times Biden has had mistakes and gaffes in his speeches. In an attempt to celebrate his victory of mass Super Tuesday election sweeps, the only GOP candidate remaining and former President Donald Trump has challenged current US President and Democratic candidate Joe Biden to TV debates “anytime, anywhere, anyplace,” as he said online in all capital letters. Biden’s campaign claimed in return that Trump was “thirsty for attention and struggling to…

No one planned to mount an attack on Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s motorcade in Odessa, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said. “Everything here is obvious to everyone. Both that there was no attack on the motorcade in Odessa, and [moreover] that if a target had been set, they (Russian forces – TASS) would have hit it,” Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel, commenting on the explosion that occurred on March 6 in Odessa in close proximity to the motorcade of Zelensky and his guest, visiting Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “But it’s still somehow a pity,” the official…

Sweden will officially become a NATO member on Thursday, March 7, according to a statement published on the White House website. “Sweden is formally joining the NATO Alliance on March 7, 2024, becoming the 32nd Ally,” the statement said. According to the US Department of State, at 7:15 p.m. Moscow time (4:15 p.m. GMT), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. As reported earlier, Sweden’s flag will be raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Monday, March 11. source: TASS

Jordan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Israel’s plans to build 3,500 new settlement homes in the occupied West Bank. The ministry issued a statement calling the plans unilateral and illegal measures that violate international law and undermine peace efforts and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Israeli settlement-planning authority announced on Wednesday that it had pushed forward permits for the new settlements in Maale Adumim, Kedar and Efrat, which are situated close to Jerusalem. Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the new planned settlements will add to a record number already approved this year. “The enemies try…