Новости за 19.04.2024

Following reports of alleged Israeli strikes inside Iran near a nuclear power station early Friday, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a new appeal to all parties to “stop the dangerous cycle of retaliation in the Middle East”.

(RFE/RL) — Israel’s military reportedly struck targets inside Iran in retaliation for an unprecedented air attack Tehran launched last weekend on its sworn enemy, but the limited scope of the operation and a muted Iranian response appeared to indicate an escalation of the conflict had been avoided.

Splits in parties, their lacklustre leadership and the absence of burning domestic or international issues combine to make the April 21 parliamentary elections a tame affair   

A few years ago, in Büyükada (Prinkipo), in the Kadıyoran slope region, day-trippers would come to Hristos Hill, bringing their food bags, consuming them, and leaving their trash behind. One day, after everyone had left, I picked up some big trash bags from my house, put on plastic gloves, and first cleaned the back meadow and then began cleaning the entire surrounding area.

Nizar Baraka, Morocco’s Minister of Infrastructure and Water, emphasized the imperative of prioritizing water desalination to address the structural water deficit exacerbated by global warming, as reported by MAP, Agence Marocaine de Presse.

On Thursday, April 18, 2024, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inspector General (IG) Michael E. Horowitz released his report on the FBI’s leaked memo targeting Catholics, and once again the loyal sons and daughters of the Catholic Church have been slapped in the face. 

The Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) has unveiled an ambitious blueprint aimed at reshaping Pakistan’s investment landscape over the next decade. This comprehensive plan focuses on bolstering economic growth, enhancing competitiveness, and attracting both domestic and international investors by addressing current challenges and leveraging emerging opportunities. 

The challenges are cultural, ideological and historical 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is considered the winning house in the elections to the Indian parliament beginning on Friday, is facing tough cultural, ideological and historical challenges in the Southern State of Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu sends 39 members to the 543-member Lower House of  parliament called the Lok Sabha.

It is in Tamil Nadu that a washout is on the cards for the BJP. Barring hard core BJP supporters... Читать дальше...

Last Sunday, on ABC’s “This Week,” host George Stephanopoulos asked New Hampshire’s Republican governor Chris Sununu about his recent switch from supporting former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley for the Republican presidential nomination to supporting former president Trump. 

On the afternoon of Friday, 29 March, Pouria Zeraati was attacked by two men outside his home in south London.  Slashed again and again with a knife, he suffered multiple stab wounds and was rushed to hospital.  Fortunately he survived, and has since been discharged.

The Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Qu Dongyu, emphasized Morocco’s expertise in water management during a press briefing in Rabat. He underscored the importance of intelligently utilizing water resources not only to address scarcity but also to foster rural development and support agriculture.

Angola, Mozambique and Nigeria plan to discuss comprehensive ways on catalyzing opportunities in Africa’s key growth markets at the upcoming forum energy forum scheduled for mid-May in Paris, France. Reports monitored by this author indicate these African countries’ officials have already expressed readiness to use the two days for networking and intensive engagement with industry experts, project developers, corporate investors and policymakers. 

By Ryan McMaken

During the 2016 and 2020 campaigns, Trump's opponents in the Democratic party (and elsewhere) often pointed out that Trump's protectionism hobbles private markets and the economy overall. Yet, the allegedly anti-protectionist Biden administration has done virtually nothing to end Trump's protectionists policies put in place from 2017 to 2020. The motivation is unclear, but it is possible that the Biden administration realized that protectionism is a useful political tool. Читать дальше...

By Archishman Goswami

"My brother has certain rules of secrecy and he obliges me to obey them scrupulously. The circle he trusts is extremely small, and he will not enlarge it. In essence, he trusts neither Arab nor European. What we do alone, we alone can betray.” 

These words were supposedly uttered by Palestinian terrorist Khalil to Charmian ‘Charlie’ Ross, the inquiring protagonist of John le Carré’s 1983 novel The Little Drummer Girl—could well apply to the puzzle of intelligence sharing in a multipolar age. Читать дальше...

April 17, 2024 marked eight years since my mother, Victoria Billingsley, departed this life at the age of 94. It was also the same day she received a letter from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare about “the recent cyber incident” affecting local hospitals in the Southwest Ontario region. 

Given former president Donald Trump’s rhetoric during the Republican primaries, we can expect immigration enforcement on our southern border to be a major focus of his presidential campaign.

The New York Times did a classic the economy is awful story by highlighting the fact that 1.3 million homeowners might not be moving because of the large gap between current mortgage rates and the rate they would have to pay on a new mortgage. While this is clearly a problem, the flip side is that millions of people were able to refinance their mortgages at extraordinarily low rate from the start of the pandemic in March of 2020 until the Fed began raising rates in March of 2022.

By Florian Klumpp

Climate change is projected to have significant, adverse effects on human lives, property and economic growth in China. Acknowledging this, Beijing updated its Climate Change Adaptation Strategy in 2022. But as the Chinese Communist Party has become hypersensitive to national security threats, climate change is now perceived as just one of the dangers to the country’s political and economic stability.

Climate actions are arguably primarily driven by concerns about regime stability... Читать дальше...

The skin toasted Australian Minister of Defence, Richard Marles, who resembles, with each day, the product of an overly worked solarium, was adamant.  Not only will Australians be paying a bill up to and above A$368 billion for nuclear powered submarines it does not need; it will also be throwing A$100 billion into the coffers of the military industrial complex over the next decade to combat a needlessly inflated enemy.  Forget diplomacy and funding the cause (and course) of peace – it’s all about the weapons and the Yellow Peril, baby. Читать дальше...

I’ve always known my Arab culture is worth celebrating.

I heard it in Syrian tenor Sabah Fakhri’s powerful voice reverberating in my mom’s car on the way to piano lessons and soccer practice during my youth. I smelled it in the za’atar, Aleppo pepper, allspice, and cumin permeating the air in the family kitchen.

I saw it in the intricate embroidery on my grandma’s silk robe. And in the determination etched in the faces of my immigrant parents, who raised seven children in Southern... Читать дальше...

By Jan Servaes

Operation 1027 has caused a change in Myanmar. Since October 2023, the advance of the anti-junta coalition of the Arakan Army (or AA, a mainly Rakhine group), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (or MNDAA, a predominantly Kokang group, a Han Chinese minority) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (or TNLA, a mainly Ta’ang group) has taken more and more cities. Major overland trade routes to China were cut off and dozens of military outposts in northern Shan were overrun. Читать дальше...

The Gaza ceasefire negotiations have all but broken down, with Israel and Hamas pursuing mutually exclusive goals.

(RFE/RL) — The sister of Nika Shakarmi, a victim of the Women, Life, Freedom movement protests, has been detained by Tehran’s morality police for failing to adhere to the Iran’s mandatory hijab law.

China has slammed an annual Philippine-U.S. joint military exercise scheduled to begin next week, warning against “maritime provocations.”

By Tria Dianti and Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata

China’s top diplomat met the outgoing Indonesian president and his successor in Jakarta on Thursday, as Beijing deepened its engagement with future leader Prabowo Subianto, amid a competition for regional influence with the United States.

The meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi was part of a joint commitment to advance the partnership between the two countries, said Prabowo, who visited Beijing in early April after his landslide win in the February general election. Читать дальше...