Author: Steven Sahiounie

At least 193 trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours via the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, the Israeli government’s coordinator for the Palestinian territories has said. “193 humanitarian aid trucks carrying food, water, medical supplies, and shelter equipment were inspected and transferred to the Gaza Strip via the Rafah Crossing today (Dec. 14),” the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said on the X social network, formerly known as Twitter. Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 after militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian…

The Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) has delivered a strike on a residential block in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip resulting in multiple victims, Palestine’s WAFA news agency reported. According to the news agency, residential buildings near the Kuwait hospital were bombarded. The agency did not specify the number of those killed and wounded. Those rescued from the rubble were taken to the Abu Youssef al-Naggar Hospital. The news agency said that overnight, the IOF had also delivered strikes on residential districts in Deir al Balah and the Nuseirat and Jabalia refugee camps. Tensions flared up again in the…

The Israel Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed the Palestinian town of Tubas in the West Bank, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported. According to it, several units of Israeli military equipment entered the town from the east. Earlier, the IOF press service reported the completion of a 60-hour raid in the city of Jenin. During the raid, 60 people wanted on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities were arrested, and more than 50 weapons of various types and hundreds of explosive devices were confiscated. The military also discovered more than ten underground mines and seven explosives laboratories. According to the Israeli side, over…

Moscow fulfills its gas export obligations, including transit through Ukraine, the president has insisted Accusations that Russia has stopped natural gas supplies to the EU are “complete nonsense,” President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday. The decline in gas exports to the bloc which resulted in a protracted energy crisis is not the fault of Moscow, but of the countries that have decided to abandon Russian energy, Putin stressed. Russia continues to deliver natural gas to Europe because Gazprom is a “reliable partner” and fulfills all of its obligations, including transit through Ukraine, the president said during his annual live TV press conference in Moscow.…

The sector has not collapsed as the West had expected, according to the president The exodus of Western car brands has provided Russian manufacturers with an opportunity to take back the domestic market, President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday during a marathon Q&A session. Putin highlighted that the Russian car industry didn’t collapse and keeps operating despite the exit of Korean, Japanese, and European brands and the sanctions policies pursued by the West. “Manufacturing of our own components” is a “top priority” for the sector, the Russian leader said, adding that the Ministry of Industry and Trade, along with domestic manufacturers, are addressing…

Washington or its allies are the probable culprits in the sabotage of the Russian gas pipelines, the president has claimed The bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines was most likely carried out by the US or someone acting on its orders, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed on Thursday. The Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines each comprised two separate channels linking Russia and Germany. Three out of the four lines were destroyed in a series of explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022, severing Germany’s direct energy ties to Russia and leaving its gas-dependent…

The country’s holdings exceeded $150 billion in November Russian gold reserves surpassed the all-time high in monetary terms, reaching $151.9 billion in November, according to the latest data released by the Bank of Russia. The stockpile surged 2.2%, or $3.198 billion month-over-month; however, in physical terms, the country’s gold reserves declined by about 16 tons to 2,315 tons, decreasing for the second consecutive month, the data shows. The increase in value was due to rising global gold prices. Russia’s total international gold and foreign exchange reserves amounted to $592.352 billion as of December, with foreign currencies accounting for $412.261 billion.…

Output declines in all three major sectors were key contributors to a drop in GDP in October The UK economy contracted by 0.3% in October, the first time since July that GDP had shrunk on a month-by-month basis, according to data released by the Office for National Statistics on Wednesday. The drop comes after a gain of 0.2% in September. Services, industrial production, and construction all showed weaker-than-expected results. The three sectors, which combined had declined for the first time in five months, were the major trigger for the drop in GDP due to their size in the economy. In…

In a vigil for a Palestinian colleague killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza, the Google staff in London have censured the company’s provision of technology to Tel Aviv. The event was to honor software engineer Mai Ubeid, a graduate of the Google-funded coding boot camp, Gaza Sky Geeks, and part of the Google for Startups accelerator program. Ubeid and her entire family were killed in Gaza on October 31. The No Tech For Apartheid campaign also participated in the vigil outside the Google offices near King’s Cross station. Google has been under pressure for business partnership with certain Israeli firms. Particular criticism…

Israeli troops have broken into a number of mosques in the occupied West Bank, using loudspeakers to sing Jewish songs in a “provocative step” on the third day of an onslaught on Jenin. Videos circulated on social media show the troops storming the mosques and using the loudspeakers that broadcast the Muslim call to prayer. They start singing Jewish songs afterward. One video shows Israeli troops addressing residents of a refugee camp in Jenin, telling them that the “story is over, we will not allow the presence of armed men inside the camp.” The Palestinian news agency Wafa said the move was “a…