Author: Shuaib Hassan

Toronto, Alaska (16/11 – 50) Our lives are being maneuvered and we are being manipulated by unelected, insidious forces, toward objectives not necessarily in the people’s interest. Now that the so-called “pandemic”, declared by the mysterious self-appointed World Health Organization, and followed obediently by governments everywhere, has been decreed “finished”, we should devote a moment to introspection, considering who is running the show and for whose benefit, as governments gaily abdicated their vested responsibility to govern. Pandemic is over? I hope they told those killer viruses who destroyed the population of Europe and North America. What? Oh, just 1% mortality?…

London (15/11 – 67) The streets in Colombo, Sri Lanka, erupted into celebration on July 13, 2022 after weeks of peaceful protests forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country. Rajapaksa, long implicated in war crimes when he was defense secretary, had presided over an economic catastrophe amid allegations of widespread corruption and impunity. But a year later, despite some superficial changes, there is no sustained improvement in the country’s economic situation that impinges many people’s human rights. The acute shortage of fuel that was the most visible feature of the economic crisis has eased. But more than six million people – nearly 30…

As the war in Israel rages, an ongoing struggle to control the narrative of the conflict is unfolding between Hamas and the Jewish state. This propaganda battle is not novel, as it has long been observed to coexist with the kinetic action between Israel and the Palestinian armed groups, dating back to at least 2014. Drawing from its prior clashes with Israel, Hamas has gained vital insights on how to effectively counter Israel. Despite being at a military disadvantage in nearly every area, Hamas has developed unconventional methods to attack Israel, including a powerful propaganda system to garner global backing…

A Palestinian man was attacked by Israeli settlers just south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank yesterday according to Palestinian authorities. Munjid Jameel Al-Sheik Ibrahim was assaulted by Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar. Settlers threw rocks at the 51-year-old truck driver under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, leaving him injured and bruised. Israeli settler violence against Palestinians is frequent and includes the destruction of property, assaults and harassment usually with the help of Israeli soldiers and is justified by the racist, right-wing politicians that make up Israel’s new coalition government. This situation displays the constant terror Palestinians…

The president of the Algerian Senate, Salah Goudjil, received on Wednesday a delegation of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, led by the head of the political bureau Ismail Haniyeh, to discuss the Palestinian cause after the signing last October in Algiers of a reconciliation agreement between the different factions. After months of high-level meetings and two days of arduous negotiations, the factions, led by Hamas and the nationalist Fatah party, signed the “Algiers Declaration” in October, under the auspices of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, with the aim of ending 15 years of division. An “unprecedented consensus”, said the president at the…

Israel is expected to see a 45 percent drop in the net influx of millionaires this year, according to a wealth report released on Tuesday. The number of millionaire arrivals to Israel will plummet 45 percent from 1,100 in 2022 to just 600 in 2023, according to London-based investment migration consultancy, Henley & Partners. Israel has long been a major destination for Jewish emigrants. The move, called “making aliyah”, is a component of Zionism, and Israel has welcomed Jews from the Middle East, former Soviet Republics, and the West for decades. However, a far-right government alliance and a bitter domestic feud over Prime…

Kuwait’s Central Bank Governor, Basel Al Haroon, recently spoke with John Everington of The Banker to discuss the potential implementation of blockchain EKYC solutions, as well as the ongoing research into central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Al Haroon explained that the bank is closely monitoring the experiences of other countries that have already issued CBDCs, as well as the ongoing debates among stakeholders regarding the various advantages and disadvantages. He emphasized the importance of maintaining monetary and financial stability, while also preserving confidence in Kuwait’s payment system. On the subject of blockchain, the Central Bank of Kuwait has approved two…

London, Brussels (27/04 – 33) Kazakh entrepreneur and philanthropist Kenes Rakishev’s acquired company, Oxus Acquisition Corp. and Borealis Foods Inc. announced the signing of a definitive business combination agreement in February this year. This alliance is expected to result in a newly combined company under the name Borealis Foods Inc. Upon the signing, the company will continue to be led by Borealis’ CEO and co-founder Reza Soltanzadeh, and chairman and co-Founder Barthelemy Helg. The boards of directors of Borealis and Oxus have each unanimously approved the proposed $150 million transaction. Borealis is a food technology company that has created ramen meals that…

The next edition of the Asian Cup will be held in Qatar from Jan 12 to Feb 10 in 2024, the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed on Wednesday. The quadrennial continental championship was awarded to China in 2019 but the world’s most populous country relinquished the rights in May 2022 as it pursued a zero-Covid-19 policy. Qatar, which hosted the men’s World Cup finals in November and December 2022, was then named the host after the Gulf state was preferred to bids from South Korea and Indonesia. The 24-team tournament has been moved from mid-2023 to early 2024 to avoid…

The EU is looking to allocate an additional one billion euros for urgently needed ammunition for Ukraine as Kyiv burns through vast numbers of shells, according to a proposal seen Wednesday by AFP. Ukraine’s Western backers are scrambling to ramp up supplies of 155-millimetre shells as they warn Kyiv faces critical shortages in the face of a grinding Russian offensive. European officials estimate that Ukrainian forces are using up to 7,000 shells per day, while Moscow’s troops are firing around 50,000. In a bid to speed up ammunition to Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell is proposing using an additional…