Author: Saalim al-Dajani

Japan will purchase 400 Tomahawk missiles from the United States, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Monday, as his government beefs up the country’s defences with eyes on threats including China. “Our country’s plan is (to acquire) 400 units” of the cruise missile, Kishida told the lower house budget committee without elaborating, citing the military sensitivity of the purchase. Earlier this month, the defence minister said Japan has set aside 211.3 billion yen ($1.5 billion) to buy the missiles in the coming fiscal year, rather than dividing the procurement over several years. Kishida’s government wants to dramatically expand Japan’s defence capacity…

CAIRO – 19 June 2024: Egypt’s agricultural exports of vegetables and fruits, during the 6-month period from September 2023 to February 2024, showed that Egypt succeeded in exporting 45 thousand tons of strawberries at a value of $129 million. Egypt’s exports of strawberries represented 2 percent of the amount of Egyptian exports and 6 percent of the value of exports. Egypt’s agricultural exports of vegetables and fruits during the 6-month period from September 2023 to February 2024 amounted to about 2.82 million tons, worth about $2 billion. Saudi Arabia, Russia and Britain came at the top of the countries importing Egyptian…

June 21 — The European Union announced on Friday that it will begin accession negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova to join the 27-member political and economic bloc starting next week. All 27 members agreed to the Ukraine and Moldova joining the European Union. Negotiations will begin for both countries on Tuesday in Luxembourg, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union said on X. The move comes at a critical time for both nations with Ukraine in the middle of an invasion by Russia and Moldova facing a Russian-led insurgence by a breakaway state. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the European Union for its…

Kiev (15/5 – 60). Spokesperson for the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not comment of the formation of new tank brigades. The new brigades are equipped with Leopard 2 and Bradley personnel carriers. The exact strength is not disclosed but it will be envisioned the new brigades are deploying the various hotspot. Well informed sources within the ministry of defense did not comment on the deployment. “We want to avoid speculation”, said a Colonel of the HUR (the military intelligence department). In the NATO context, the Ukrainian army is a considerable force. Wedged in between the United States, Poland, Turkey (or…

Moscow 22/5 (57.14) According to NATO’s top military official, Russia does not have enough troops to make a significant advance in the north-east of Ukraine. “The Russians don’t have the numbers necessary to do a strategic breakthrough,” NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe Christopher Cavoli told reporters last week. “They don’t have the skill and the capability to do it; to operate at the scale necessary to exploit any breakthrough to strategic advantage,” the general said. According to earlier statements by Putin, Russia’s intention is not to take the city of Kharkiv, but rather to create a security zone, a sanitary…

As Victoria Nuland steps down, she gets real about a world on fire. Victoria Nuland has long been known as a relentless, even pugnacious, U.S. diplomat, with a strong belief in American power. The approach sometimes got her in trouble, but it rarely held her back. Nuland recently left the State Department after serving at its highest levels, first as the Biden administration’s undersecretary of State for political affairs, and, for several months, acting deputy secretary of State. She previously was a career diplomat who held an array of roles under presidents both Republican and Democratic; her first posting more than…

Researchers have tracked more activity by an influence campaign linked to Russia that spreads disinformation and propaganda in the U.S., Germany and Ukraine through a vast network of social media accounts and fake websites. The campaign, attributed to the Russia-linked influence operation network called Doppelgänger, has been active since at least May 2022. The U.S. tech company Meta previously referred to Doppelgänger as the “largest” and “most aggressively persistent” malign network sponsored by Russia. Researchers from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group are currently tracking over 2,000 inauthentic social media accounts associated with Dopplegänger, but say the actual number could be even higher. The Record is…

In the days since the mass killing at the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, blameless Tajik migrants across Russia have been subjected to threats, verbal abuse and increased harassment from law enforcement. Panic is mounting – not just among Tajiks, but other Central Asian expatriate diasporas too – about the potential long-term fallout of intensified discrimination fueled by rage over an attack that has left more than 140 people dead. Atovullo, a 35-year-old Tajik living in Moscow, told Eurasianet that his landlord summarily evicted him without explanation immediately after the Crocus attack, which investigators say was perpetrated by a…

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson have been encouraged to cancel their ‘mismatch’ showdown. ‘Iron Mike’ is set to step back in the ring aged 58 to take on YouTube star Jake Paul in a blockbuster summer fight, a fight which has seen him given medical warnings given their 31-year age difference. Tyson has been documenting his training in footage posted to social media, with some fans surprisingly impressed by his punch power and suggesting he will beat Paul. And his new footage crushing the pads with trainer Rafael Cordeiro, has been met by new pleas from fans for Paul to abandon the fight…

Frankfurt, Paris (14/4 – 40) Relations between Russia and NATO have reached boiling point due the recent event: the claim that Serbia and Russia want to refight Kosovo; the closure of the border by Finland; and the statement by the President of France, Emanuel Macron, on March, 14. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, in a series of posts on social media, claimed that NATO, the EU, and the US government were targeting Kosovo and Serbia and destroying the relationship. Never mind a coalition with Italy and Russia, this is just another pipedream of Radio…