Новости за 08.01.2024

A clip from the 1990 movie Home Alone where the lead character purchases groceries, household goods, and toys recently went viral because he paid a total of $19.83 whereas today the same purchase would cost over three times as much. Ironically, while this evidence of the Federal Reserve’s failure to maintain the dollar’s value was going viral, stocks rose because investors believed the Fed had successfully engineered a “soft landing” by bringing down price inflation without causing a recession and would soon begin reducing interest rates. Читать дальше...

The World Economic Forum today launched the Global Cooperation Barometer to measure the state of global cooperation. The barometer indicates that global cooperation was resilient in multiple dimensions from 2012 until 2020 but overall cooperation declined by 2% from 2020 to 2022.  

TotalEnergies announced Monday that Libra Consortium has taken the final investment decision to develop an innovative natural gas and CO2 separation and reinjection facility for the Mero field in the Brazilian deep offshore pre-salt.

In October 2023, Pakistan decided to expatriate all illegal immigrant on its soil. A majority of these include Afghan immigrant who have been fleeing from war, lack of opportunities and oppression in their country since 1979 when former USSR invaded Afghanistan. 

The Bangladesh Parliament will now look like an extended national Council of the ruling Awami League with 61 Independents from the party emerging as the main ‘Opposition bloc’ to the League’s 223 elected MPs in a 300-member House.

Ethnic rebels have overrun a key military command center in northern Myanmar, taking control of the city of Laukkai and accepting the surrender of hundreds of soldiers, in what analysts called a stunning blow to the junta’s grasp on power in the region.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Awami League party will return to power for an unprecedented fourth consecutive term in Bangladesh after being declared the winner of Sunday’s general election, which drew a low turnout amid an opposition boycott.

By Jaya Ramachandran

The UN’s migration agency IOM has launched an urgent appeal for $69 million to support its response to escalating and critical humanitarian needs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and neighbouring countries affected by the ongoing hostilities in Gaza.

In a statement on 5 January, IOM said that hundreds of thousands of civilians need aid desperately. But getting help to them continues to be hampered by “long clearance procedures for humanitarian... Читать дальше...

By Chung-min Tsai and Yves Tiberghien

Taiwan’s three-way presidential and legislative election campaign has entered a vital phase leading up to final rallies on 12 January and the vote on 13 January. With Taiwan at the heart of strategic tensions in Asia, the whole world is watching how Taiwanese voters react. Yet the dominant features of the campaign so far are the stability and resilience of Taiwan’s democratic and political processes, policy convergence on core strategic questions... Читать дальше...

By Yossi Mekelberg

Inevitably, there is a sense among most Israelis that life and politics could be, and probably should be, divided between before and after Oct. 7, and what preceded this fateful day is diminished by the war and sheer trauma that ensued.

However, the ruling by the High Court of Justice last week to nullify a law passed by the Knesset in July of eliminating the reasonableness clause to a Basic Law, followed by another ruling that postpones a further amendment... Читать дальше...

The escalating threat of drug smuggling from Syria casts a dark shadow over the once-stable Levant region, posing a multifaceted challenge to Jordan's security apparatus. The proactive engagement of Jordanian security forces against drug cartels has reached unprecedented levels, with an increasing number of reports detailing the interception of drug trafficking attempts. Notably, in a decisive operation in December 2023, Jordanian security forces clashed fiercely with armed individuals along the Jordanian-Syrian border... Читать дальше...

By Graham J Noble

On January 5, Joe Biden delivered the opening speech of his re-election campaign near Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. As was expected, it was a rambling diatribe that focused on his predecessor and potential successor, Donald Trump, and the supposed threat to democracy he poses. Biden made several questionable statements but, most notably, he became the first White House incumbent in living memory to give a campaign speech that did not include any reference to his own performance or record so far. Читать дальше...

Council on American Islamic Relations Los Angeles executive director Hussam Ayloush recently defended Hamas's barbaric slaughter of 1,200 Jewish, Thai, Filipino, Bedouin and other men, women and children. He claimed Israel is "an occupier" that "does not have the right to defend itself." He condemned Israel's subsequent war in Gaza and said only Palestinians have "a right of self-defense."

The question is not if but when Gaza-related violence will spill onto the streets of European and American cities.

Israel has rendered Gaza a “moonscape in war,” uninhabitable for years to come, reduced to rubble by “the most intense air campaigns in the modern record.” Not only is Israel murdering tens of thousands of Gaza’s civilians–22,313 Palestinians to date (Via Ha’aretz Israel News, Wednesday, 03.01.2024); an average of 200 to 300 souls a day–but it has gone and done a Taliban on the Gaza strip’s heritage sites, some dating back to antiquity.

By Speed Al-Batati

Yemen’s Houthi militia on Sunday called for all vessels planning to transit the Red Sea to notify them in advance of their destinations and declare no connections to Israel to avoid being attacked.

The Houthi leader, Mohammed Ali Al-Houthi, proposed defusing what he called the “militarization” of the Red Sea or igniting a war between their militia and the US-led maritime forces in the waters, by demanding that all ships sailing in the area supply them with the requested information. Читать дальше...

They are unlikely to be revelatory, will shatter no myths, nor disprove any assumptions.  Cabinet documents exist to merely show that a political clique – the heart of the Westminster model of government, so to speak – often contain the musings of invertebrates, spineless on most issues such as foreign policy, while operating at the behest of select interests.  Hostility to originality is essential since it is threatening to the tribe; dissent is discouraged to uphold the order of collective cabinet responsibility. Читать дальше...

On January 13, the residents of Taiwan, an island off the coast of China, will go to the polls to elect a new president and parliament. These elections attract more international attention than one might expect for a country with only 24 million inhabitants. The outcome will have consequences for the evolution of the conflict between the United States and China, and consequently, possibly for world peace.

Muslim leaders in the Russian Federation have long been alarmed by the propensity of many Russian officials and ordinary Russians as well to lump together Muslims who are Russian citizens and Muslim immigrants, something these leaders have long insisted is not only wrong but counterproductive.

By Nike Ching

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Jordan and Qatar on Sunday to meet with Arab leaders in a new push to tamp down fears that the Israeli war with Hamas could spiral out of control across the Middle East.

In meetings with Jordan King Abdullah II and Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the top U.S. diplomat spoke of the need for Israel to curb civilian casualties during the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza and significantly increase the amount of humanitarian... Читать дальше...

With the passing of Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe at the age of 86, our country has lost one of the greatest “extra-ordinary” physicians of the past half century. There have been physicians who developed great life-saving vaccines and medications (e.g., smallpox, polio, HIV/AIDS). But because of Sid’s endurance and the range of his work as director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group (HRG), he pioneered unprecedented means and measures for saving lives and preventing injuries and trauma.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar obnoxious remark that “Advocates of terrorists in Balochistan should go and join them if they are convinced on the veracity of their issue and fight the state along with them, so that we know where they stand and how to deal with them” would have outraged the uninitiated. However, for those who have been following the unfortunate happenings in Balochistan, Kakar’s declaration comes as no big surprise as it merely reflects the long held jaundiced... Читать дальше...

Three years ago, the United States Capitol was attacked by thousands of armed loyalists to Donald Trump, some intent on killing members of Congress.