Oil prices reached fresh multi-year highs on Friday, closing out a third straight week of gains on an improved outlook for worldwide demand as rising COVID-19 vaccination rates help lift pandemic curbs. Brent crude futures settled at $72.69 a barrel, rising 17 cents after reaching their highest since May 2019. …
Read More »Daily Archives: June 11, 2021
Pulitzers Honor Coronavirus Pandemic, George Floyd Coverage
Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to Reuters, the New York Times, the Atlantic, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Friday for their coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and racial inequities in U.S. policing, topics that dominated the ceremony. The Star Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting for what …
Read More »Israeli troops kill Palestinian teen in West Bank
Israeli forces have brutally suppressed anti-settlement protests in the occupied West Bank, leaving a Palestinian teenager killed. The Palestinian Red Crescent said Mohammad Said Hamayel, 15, succumbed to wounds he sustained when Israeli troops shot him on Sobeih Mountain in Beita town, south of the occupied West Bank city of …
Read More »UN rapporteur urges UAE to free five rights activists
A United Nations special rapporteur has called on the United Arab Emirates to immediately free five human rights defenders who have been held in harsh conditions in the country’s prisons for eight years. Mohamed al-Mansoori, Hassan Mohammed al-Hammad, Hadif Rashed Abdullah al-Owais, Ali Saeed al-Kindi, and Salim Hamdoon al-Shahhi are …
Read More »France kills extremist suspected in journalists’ killing
A French military offensive in Mali has killed an extremist leader linked to al-Qaeda who is believed to have helped orchestrate the kidnapping and killing of two French journalists in 2013, France’s defense minister said Friday. Three other extremists were also killed in the weekend anti-terrorist operation around Aguelhok in …
Read More »Algeria arrests prominent journalists, activist before election
Amnesty says arrests of Khaled Drareni, Ihsane El-Kadi, and Karim Tabbou are evidence of ‘chilling escalation’ in the clampdown on dissent. Authorities in Algeria have arrested two prominent journalists and a well-known opposition figure, just days before the country’s parliamentary election. Algeria is set to hold its first legislative election …
Read More »Delta COVID variant 60 percent more transmissible, UK gov’t says
The variant first identified in India currently accounts for more than 90 percent of Britain’s new COVID-19 cases. Health authorities in Britain have said the new Delta coronavirus variant is 60 percent more transmissible in households than the previous dominant Alpha variant that forced the United Kingdom to lock down …
Read More »Iraq’s CBI: Dollar exchange rate is stable
The Central Bank of Iraq confirmed that the dollar exchange rate is stable and will remain unchanged. The Central Bank said in a statement that the price set at the end of 2020 for the dollar exchange rate was based on in-depth studies of the requirements of the economic and …
Read More »Iraq reports 4320 new COVID-19 cases, 20 deaths in Iraq today
Iraq recorded 4320 COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the Ministry of Health said today, Friday. The daily epidemiological report on the COVID-19 situation stated that 20 COVID-19 deaths were registered today. On the other hand, 4130 patients have achieved full recovery. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 in …
Read More »Close to 10,000 Mozambicans fleeing violence forcibly removed from Tanzania – U.N.
Almost 10,000 Mozambicans have been forcibly removed from Tanzania so far this year after fleeing a deadly Islamist insurgency in their homeland, a spokesperson for the U.N. refugee agency said on Friday. Mozambique’s northern-most province of Cabo Delgado has been the focus of an insurgency linked to the Islamic State …
Read More »US must first lift Iran sanctions to return to JCPOA: China
Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the United States should first lift all the sanctions it has imposed on Iran in order to return to the 2015 nuclear deal as negotiations continue in the Austrian capital to revive the agreement, which was abandoned by the US three …
Read More »Venezuela accuses US of blocking its access to Covax vaccines with sanctions
Venezuela’s Vice President Delcy Rodriguez has stated that US sanctions are preventing the South American nation from accessing Covid vaccines by blocking a $10 million payment to the global Covax scheme. The statement made by the Venezuelan government official during a televised broadcast claimed that the US is blocking “resources …
Read More »G7 to donate 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to poorer countries
Wealthy nations begin a key summit with Biden in attendance, as some campaign groups condemn vaccine ‘charity’ plan as a drop in the ocean. G7 leaders are meeting for their first in-person talks in nearly two years, with an expected pledge to donate one billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the …
Read More »Turkey’s troops should leave Afghanistan under 2020 deal: Taliban
Taliban spokesman tells Reuters Turkey should withdraw troops as part of deal with the US for pullout of foreign forces. Turkey should withdraw its troops from Afghanistan under the 2020 deal for the pullout of foreign forces, a Taliban spokesman has said, effectively rejecting Ankara’s proposal to guard and run …
Read More »Demolishing Palestinian homes for an Israeli religious theme park
More than 100 buildings housing about 1,500 people in the al-Bustan area of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem faces demolition. Nearly 120 Palestinian families face the destruction of their homes to make way for an Israeli religious theme park where the Israelis believe King David had a garden in biblical …
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