Author: News Desk

U.S. President Joe Biden told allies “we have to stay together” against Russia, as world leaders met on Sunday at a G7 summit in the Bavarian Alps that will be dominated by war in Ukraine and its painful impact on food and energy supplies across the globe. At the start of the meeting, four members of the Group of Seven rich nations moved to ban imports of Russian gold as part of efforts to tighten the sanctions squeeze on Moscow and cut off its means of financing the invasion of Ukraine. However, it was not immediately clear whether there was…

The world’s central bank umbrella body, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), has called for interest rates to be raised “quickly and decisively” to prevent the surge in inflation turning into something even more problematic. The Swiss-based BIS has held its annual meeting in recent days, where top central bankers met to discuss their current difficulties and one of the most turbulent starts to a year ever for global financial markets. Surging energy and food prices mean inflation in many places is now its hottest in decades. But the usual remedy of ramping up interest rates is raising the spectre…

Customs President Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamad Al Khalifa has been re-elected uncontested as president of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Council for a third exceptional term (2022-2023) in an unprecedented move. The WCO system allows the election of the WCO Council President  for a one-year term, in addition to the possibility of re-election for a second one-year term. In certain exceptional cases the board can also re-elect the incumbent president for a third one-year term. WCO Council member countries endorsed the re-election of Shaikh Ahmed bin Hamad AlKhalifa in recognition of his efficient management during the pandemic, which enabled the…

The Bahrain Institute for Political Development (BIPD) will hold its popular webinar, entitled “National Leadership in Parliamentary Diplomacy”, on Sunday. First Deputy Speaker of the Council of Representatives, Abdulnabi Salman, First Deputy Chairman of the Shura Council, Jamal Mohammed Fakhro, and Bahrain’s Permanent Representatives to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Dr. Yousef Abdul Karim Bucheeri, will participate in the online symposium. The symposium aims to review the history of parliamentary work in the Kingdom, shed light on national achievements at the GCC, Arab and international levels, and introduce the importance of parliamentary diplomacy and its growing importance in consolidating bridges…

The National Space Science Agency (NSSA) is set to take part in an international conference “Middle East and North Africa Space Capabilities and Security Challenges: Applications to Disaster Management”. The event will be held in cooperation with NATO on June 28 and 29 in Napoli, Italy, at an invitation by the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). NSSA delegation will be headed by its Chief Executive Dr. Mohammed Ibrahim Al Asiri who will participate as a keynote speaker in the second session of the conference themed “Middle East and North Africa: Applications to Space Capabilities and Security Challenges for Disaster Management”. Aisha…

Bahrain and Kyrgyzstan are set to enhance relations and expand cooperation across several areas, the Kyrgyz foreign minister has said. “Talks with HRH the Crown prince and Prime Minister, the Speaker and the Minister of Foreign Affairs were highly successful,” Jeenbek Kulubaev said. “There was full understanding and we had agreements all the way. Both our countries are committed to boosting relations and to boosting the exchange of visits at the highest levels,” the minister told Bahrain News Agency (BNA). Kulubaev on his first visit to the Kingdom said he was “very impressed” by what he saw in Bahrain, its…

U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law the first major federal gun reform in three decades, days after a decision he condemned by the Supreme Court expandingfirearm owners’ rights. “God willing, it’s going to save a lot of lives,” Biden said at the White House after signing the bill with his wife Jill by his side. The bipartisan bill came together just weeks after mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo that killed more than 30 people, including 19 children at an elementary school. The law includes provisions to help states keep guns out of the hands of those…

Russian forces have fully occupied Sievierodonetsk, the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city said on Saturday, confirming Ukraine’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month, after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking the last major Ukrainian-held bastion in eastern Luhansk province, Sievierodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. The fall of Sievierodonetsk – once home to more than 100,000 people, now a wasteland – was Russia’s biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in…

Afghanistan’s Taliban administration called on international governments on Saturday to roll back sanctions and lift a freeze on central bank assets following the earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands homeless this week. The 6.1-magnitude quake that struck the east of the country early on Wednesday damaged or destroyed 10,000 homes and also injured about 2,000 people, straining the country’s fragile health system and posing a major test for the ruling Taliban. While humanitarian aid continues to flow to Afghanistan, funds needed for longer-term development were halted when the Taliban seized control of the country last August…

President Joe Biden’s administration indicated it will seek to prevent states from banning a pill used for medication abortion in light of the Supreme Court ruling overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, signaling a major new legal fight. The administration could argue in court that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone, one of the pills used for medication abortions, pre-empts state restrictions, meaning federal authority outweighs any state action. That same argument has already been raised by Las Vegas-based GenBioPro Inc, which sells a generic version of the pill, in a lawsuit challenging Mississippi’s restrictions…