Author: Steven Sahiounie

Expenses incurred by mass immigration to the Netherlands have averaged €17 billion per year over a quarter-century The Dutch government’s spending on migrants exceeds the average outlay on education, social security and benefits, according a new study. The net cost of immigration has reportedly amounted to more than €400 billion ($430 billion at the current rate) over a nearly 25-year timeframe. The study, titled “Borderless Welfare State: The Consequences of Immigration on Public Finances,” found that costs incurred by immigration policies in the Netherlands have totalled €17 billion a year on average, with a peak of €32 billion in 2016 due to the…

Geopolitical conflicts have sparked unprecedented demand, according to Vista Outdoor A scarcity of global gunpowder supplies could trigger a substantial increase in ammunition prices, US company Vista Outdoor has warned, according to a Newsweek report. The Minnesota-based firm, which owns several firearms businesses, told the magazine last week that it would go ahead with an across-the-board increase of its ammunition and gunpowder prices on January 1. “Due to world events our suppliers have notified us of unprecedented demand for and an anticipated global shortage of gunpowder, and thus has increased our prices substantially,” Vista Outdoor’s vice president of sporting product sales,…

An industry group expects the sector to be hit by a drop in prices, sanctions and Western import duties Russia’s Aluminium Association has issued a grim warning for the industry as it faces Western sanctions, tariffs and a drop in prices for one of the world’s most widely used metals. In its latest overview of the current state of the industry, the association has warned that the entire sector is on the verge of a serious crisis, adding that several enterprises of Russian aluminum giant Rusal are at risk of closure. “A number of Rusal enterprises are already operating on…

The military wing of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas says it has targeted southern Tel Aviv with missiles in response to the Israeli regime’s fierce bombardment of the besiege Gaza Strip. The al-Qassam Brigades announced in a brief statement on Monday that the resistance forces had fired missiles at southern neighborhoods of Tel Aviv and the city of Holon “in response to the Israeli massacres against civilians in Gaza.” Israeli media confirmed the retaliatory strikes by Hamas and said, “A series of 10 missiles were launched towards central Israel, one of which landed in Holon, causing major damage.” Reports said a…

Israel used US-supplied internationally banned white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon, according to a Washington Post investigation. “A journalist working for The Post found remnants of three 155-millimeter artillery rounds fired into Dheira, near the Lebanese border with Israel, which wounded at least nine civilians and incinerated at least four homes, residents said,” the newspaper said. Lot production codes found on the shells match the nomenclature used by the US military to categorize domestically produced munitions, which show they were made by ammunition depots in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992, the report said. The light green…

Israeli warplanes have struck a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in a populated refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. The complex, run by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), hosts hundreds of displaced people in the Jabalia refugee camp. Videos of the Sunday attack circulated on social media showing blood in the school yard, and fire in the building. Citing eyewitnesses, Anadolu news agency reported several people were killed and wounded as “one of the classrooms in the school was bombed by the Israeli army.” The regime’s warplanes also targeted a house in the refugee camp. 45 people were killed. Dozens…

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has warned Israel and the US that they would never be able to realize their goal of wiping out Hamas even if they spend a decade to fight the Palestinian resistance movement. “Neither Israel nor the US, even if they spend another 10 years in Gaza, will be able to obliterate Hamas,” Amir-Abdollahian said while addressing the Doha Forum in Qatar via video conference on Monday. Amir-Abdollahian added that it was wrong to assume that the Hamas military operation, which started on October 7, triggered the Israeli onslaught on Gaza as it was rather the continuation of the…

The situation in Gaza is “catastrophic, apocalyptic” with destruction proportionally “even greater” than Germany experienced in World War II, the EU’s top diplomat says. While denouncing Hamas’s attack, Josep Borrell made clear he saw Israel’s military operation as disproportionate in terms of civilian deaths and damage to civilian property and infrastructure. “The human suffering constitutes an unprecedented challenge to the international community,” Borrell said. “Civilian casualties are between 60 and 70 percent of the overall deaths” and “85 percent of the population is internally displaced”. “The destruction of buildings in Gaza … is more or less or even greater than…

The Iran foreign minister urged the European Union to take more serious steps to end the Israeli regime’s onslaught against the Gaza Strip. Hossein Amirabdollahian on Sunday sent a letter to Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In the letter, the Iranian diplomat highlighted the recent positions of the European side on Gaza, emphasizing the urgent need to establish a lasting ceasefire, halt the massacre of civilians in Gaza, and adhere to international humanitarian law. He also touched upon the urgent delivery of aid to the displaced people of Gaza, and…

Asked by reporters if he had a message to nations that opposed a ceasefire in Gaza, China’s representative to the UN, Zhang Jun, said simply: “Enough is enough.” Beijing on Saturday called Washington vetoing a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza “disappointing and regrettable”. China last month called on the UN Security Council to formulate a “concrete” timetable and roadmap for a two-state solution to achieve a “comprehensive, just and lasting” settlement of the Palestinian issue. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has also warned against the conflict spilling over into the entire Middle East. Source: AlJazeera