Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that instead of considering the BRICS currency as an alternative currency, "we will initially work to settle trade between the BRICS countries, and this could, in theory, create conditions for stronger monetary relations between the member states," according to UNHERD website.
The US Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces agreed on Iran's announcement of its intention to form a naval alliance with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
And the "Breaking Defense" website, which specializes in military news, quoted a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet and the Combined Maritime Forces, Tim Hawkins, as saying, "The alliance that Iran announced its intention to form with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries is illogical and defies reason."
Hawkins claimed that "Iran wants to form a maritime security alliance to protect the waters that threaten it," he said.
This American fear was accompanied by an Israeli fear, as Israeli media published a report describing Iran's decision as "disturbing."
China, on the other hand, through its foreign ministry, welcomed the Iranian-Saudi-Emarati collaboration. "We welcome the alliance that includes Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson said. "We welcome the announcement of the formation of a joint naval alliance that includes Iran, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and some other parties. This alliance enhances security and stability in the region." He added.
They added that these meetings are organized by the Singapore government and held secretly in a separate location, as well as the security summit for several years. These meetings have not been previously disclosed.
US Director of National Intelligence Avril Heinz participated in the secret meeting representing the United States, while China was among the countries present, despite the state of tension between the two great powers.
An Indian source said Samant Goel, director of India's intelligence service, Research and Analysis Wing, also attended the meeting.
“The meeting is an important component of the international shadow agenda,” said a person familiar with the discussions. “Looking at the group of countries involved, this is not an intelligence meeting, but rather a way to advance a deeper understanding of the intent.”
"There is an unspoken code among the intelligence services that they can talk when they find it difficult to communicate and engage in diplomacy," he said. "It's a very important factor during times of tension, and the Singapore meeting helps reinforce that."
The five sources who discussed the meetings declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
A spokesman for Singapore's Ministry of Defense said that while attending the Shangri-La Security Dialogue, "participants, including senior officials from intelligence agencies, take the opportunity to meet with their counterparts".
He added, "The Ministry of Defense in Singapore may facilitate some of these bilateral or multilateral meetings... Participants consider that these meetings held on the sidelines of the (dialogue) are useful."
After Senegalese opposition figure Osman Sonko was sentenced to two years in prison for "corrupting the youth", the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and a number of regions are witnessing violence.
Two police officials told "Agence France Presse" that 3 people were killed during demonstrations in Ziguinchor (south), noting that a policeman was stoned to death by young men on the outskirts of Dakar, and no official confirmed this information publicly.
In the evening, it was noted that there were restrictions that greatly impeded access to social networking sites.
"This situation is similar" to what Senegal witnessed in 2021 of bloody violence, "and it is likely to greatly limit people's ability to communicate," NetBlocks, an internet monitoring organization, told AFP.
Attorney Ousmane Thiam, who attended the hearing, explained that “corrupting the youth,” which includes hiring or encouraging the employment of a person under the age of 21, is a misdemeanor under Senegalese law, not a crime like rape.
Sonko would have been stripped of his electoral rights if he had been convicted in absentia of a crime such as rape.
However, the reclassification of the facts as a misdemeanor still under the electoral law appears to threaten Sonko's eligibility and ability to run for president in 2024.
Sonko came third in the 2019 elections.
Sonko, who did not attend the trial and took refuge in the south of the country, confirms that this case is a conspiracy orchestrated by the president, who denies this.
Since February 2021, when the alleged rape case hit the headlines, Sonko has been fighting a battle in the judiciary and the political arena to ensure his survival against President Macky Sall.
About 20 civilians have been killed since 2021 in disturbances largely related to his status, and the authority and his camp exchange accusations in this regard.
Senegal, which is considered a relatively stable country in a turbulent region despite some political problems, witnessed new clashes between Sonko's supporters and the security forces linked to his trial and then his return from the south of the country to Dakar on Friday.
He was able to mobilize the youth, but he was arrested on Sunday and forcibly returned to his home in the capital, where he was kept in the midst of a heavy police presence. Since then, the police have responded with tear gas or even arrest for any attempt to approach him.
In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Sonko announced that he was "detained" and called on Senegalese to demonstrate "in abundance".
Young men attacked and looted the homes of members of the republican camp. The response came with reprisals against the property of members of the opposition and Sonko's party.
President Sall promised, on Wednesday, firmness in the face of violence and decided to start a "national dialogue" that is supposed to reduce tension.
It is noteworthy that Sonko (48 years) is the head of the "Bastef" party and the leader of the opposition in Senegal, and he condemns the exploitation of the judiciary and making it a tool to achieve political ends. He also gives speeches stressing politics and belonging to Africa, and attacks elites and corruption.
He also criticizes the economic and political domination exercised by France and multinational corporations, and defends religious and traditional values, knowing that he is very popular among young people in Senegal.
The persistent problem of strategic planning by Africa's leaders is manifesting itself in the most populous and energy rich African country, Nigeria.
The fuel crisis in Nigeria occupies the largest part of the momentum throughout the country, as it fluctuates from time to time between a shortage of imports and their impact on global prices, and the absence of local refining capabilities and the stoppage of refineries.
Since Tuesday, huge queues have formed outside petrol stations across Nigeria, after new President Paula Tinubu announced that fuel subsidies would soon be scrapped, causing panic among consumers.
The new president, Bola Tinubu, 71, who was recently sworn in, said there would be no grant spending in his budget, in line with his campaign promise.
"Instead, we will redirect the money toward better investments in public infrastructure, education, healthcare and jobs that will improve the lives of our citizens," he added.
He pointed out that "support is fading," without specifying a specific date, which led to confusion among the population and prompted motorists to rush to service stations.
Yesterday, Tuesday, the president's communications team said that the subsidy will end at the end of next June, describing the panic buying of fuel as "unnecessary."
Nigeria trades its billions of dollars worth of crude for imported fuel (due to failed state refineries), which it then subsidizes to maintain an artificially low price in the market, creating a financial chasm.
Therefore, it is a very popular measure among the population, but it withdraws billions of dollars from the public treasury every year.
Over the past ten years, the authorities have attempted to abolish this subsidy on several occasions. But to no avail. Each time, they had to back down in the face of public anger that the unions amplified to the limit.
And in 2012, the Nigerian army took to the streets to keep calm during demonstrations against the removal of subsidies.
The foreign ministers of the BRICS countries, who met Thursday in the Cape, before a summit scheduled for August, whose preparations are dominated by the question of whether Vladimir Putin will come to South Africa or not, called for a "rebalancing" of the global system.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at the start of the meeting, "The multipolar world is rebalancing and the old methods cannot handle the new situations."
For her part, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said, "Our discussions today will focus on opportunities to strengthen and transform global governance systems."
Pretoria has long called for the BRICS countries to create balance in a world system dominated by the West.
In response to a question by journalists about the Russian president's attendance at the summit in August, the minister confirmed that "an invitation was extended to each of the five heads of state."
Pandor added that the South African government, which has not taken a position on the possible arrest of the Russian president, is studying "legal options."
Putin has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for the "deportation" of Ukrainian children as part of Moscow's attack on Ukraine.
In theory, as a member of the International Criminal Court, South Africa is supposed to arrest the Russian president if he enters its territory. But the two countries maintain close relations.
Pretoria refuses to condemn Moscow since the start of the war on Ukraine, stressing that it takes a neutral position and prefers dialogue to resolve the crisis, which raises concern in the international arena.
In April, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for Putin put South Africa "in a difficult position".
This week, the South African government granted diplomatic immunity to officials who attended the BRICS summit, saying it was standard procedure for organizing international conferences.
On the other hand, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced today, Thursday, that the issue of accepting Saudi Arabia into the BRICS alliance had already been discussed.
Lavrov told reporters, after a meeting of the BRICS Council of Foreign Ministers, that the foreign ministers of the BRICS countries had already discussed the issue of accepting Saudi Arabia into the group.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said earlier today that "the issue of BRICS expansion will be discussed" during the ministerial meeting in Cape Town.
"There are many strong candidates to join BRICS, and Saudi Arabia is one of them," Ryabkov added.
He continued, "We support their candidacy unconditionally, and will do everything we can to ensure that the process of developing criteria for accepting new members is not delayed."
Russian President Vladimir Putin had previously announced that Russia would continue to develop relations with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the bilateral and multilateral levels, indicating that Moscow supports Riyadh's accession to the BRICS alliance.
During the last summit (2022), Argentina and Iran formally submitted their applications to join BRICS, a move strongly supported by Russia and China.
And the “BRICS” group is a bloc that includes Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa and India. It was founded in 2006, at a summit hosted by the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, and its name changed from “BRICS” to BRICS in 2011, after South Africa joined it. This international group aims to increase economic relations. between them in local currencies, which reduces dependence on the dollar.
Singapore is rarely in the news. Countries, other than Western countries, are usually in the news because bad things are happening in them. That is one of the persistent biases of Western media. Here, we review several news stories covering events in Singapore, this multiethnic and multireligious countries, with its Muslim woman president, Halimah Yacob, though the position of the President of Singapore is ceremonial, her presence in the presidency will be useful in integrating Singapore's economy with that of Muslim-majority neighbors like Indonesia and Malaysia as well as the 57-nation bloc of Muslim-majority countries around the world.
Singapore’s private homes are now the most expensive in Asia-Pacific, having overtaken Hong Kong, according to a new report.
Data from the Home Attainability Index from the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Asia Pacific Centre for Housing showed the median price of Singapore’s private homes was $1.2 million in 2022, compared to Hong Kong’s $1.16 million.
Private rental homes in Singapore also had the highest monthly rent in the region at $2,600 — “far exceeding” other cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Hong Kong, according to the report...
Read the full article here.
The article below makes the case for Singapore as being better in more than just one aspect.
It’s amusing to read comments by local property tycoon Ronnie Chan Chi-chung about places such as Singapore being “artificial”, “charmless” and “super boring”. Hong Kong, on the other hand, has the six “Gs” that are its unique advantages: genetics, geography, a culture of giving, the GBA (Greater Bay Area), its government and grey matter.
Really? The problem with tycoons everywhere, and not just in Hong Kong, is that they feel free to pontificate because they are rarely challenged, well, not in their face anyway. So I am glad reader John Chan of Singapore has written a rebuttal, pointing out that the city state enjoys both higher per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and median monthly household income. It’s doing very well, thank you very much!
Maybe Ronnie Chan can counter, as you would if you are a tycoon, that the capitalisation of Hong Kong’s stock market far exceeds that of Singapore or that the latter’s IPO market is minuscule compared to his city’s. Hong Kong has Disneyland, but hey, they have Universal Studios.
But all these comparisons are superficial.
The fundamental fact is that Singapore is a city state, rather than... read article
Politically, Singapore is oftten courted by other countries to take side in relation to global matters. This article is one example.
Europe is fretting that Asia isn’t doing enough to condemn Russia and support Ukraine — and it’s revving up efforts to sway Asian officials in person.
On Friday, an unprecedentedly high-profile European delegation will converge in Singapore at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s top security forum. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas will be there, as will EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, flanked by Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace is also expected to attend in person — as are Boris Pistorius, Kajsa Ollongren and Pål Jonson, the defense ministers from Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Their goal: Rally more Asian countries to help Kyiv.
While many Asian nations initially joined in condemning Russia’s invasion at the United Nations, countries like India and Vietnam continue to count on Russian military or energy supplies, while Western allies Japan and South Korea are unable to... read article
Medvedev, a lawyer and former president of Russia, just labeled the Kiev regime a terror entity and said that it must be exterminated because they act as terrorists, and described the attacks on Russia by drones as a “terrorist act”.
Medvedev's remarks came during his visit to a military
training center in the Volgograd region, today, Thursday.
Medvedev described the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia as
a "terrorist act".
He explained, “This is not a military action,” pointing out
that it is a type of weapon that cannot harm military installations.
And the deputy head of the Russian Security Council added:
“It is clear to everyone that this is a terrorist attack. It does not comply
with the rules of war. Its purpose is to harm the civilian population only,
because the drones used cannot cause damage to military installations.
He added, "the Kiev regime must be exterminated because
it is a hornet's nest, otherwise it will pose a constant threat," noting
that terrorist attacks must be responded to as harshly as possible.
On Tuesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the Kiev regime launched a terrorist attack with drones on facilities in
the city of Moscow.
In its statement, the ministry indicated that 8 drones
participated in the attack on Moscow, and all of them were shot down by the
Pantsir-S air defense system.
The Russian defense also confirmed that 3 drones were shot
down in Moscow through the use of electronic warfare means, which caused the
drones to lose control and deviate from their targets.
The Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, Ahmed Al-Tayeb, received today, Thursday, at the headquarters of the Sheikh of Al-Azhar, the United Nations High Representative for the Dialogue of Civilizations, Miguel Moratinos, and ways to enhance joint cooperation were discussed.
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar welcomed Moratinos, stressing Al-Azhar's openness to dialogue with all believers in religions, cultures and civilizations.
Al-Tayeb pointed out that the world is currently facing a very complex crisis, which is the crisis of excluding religious and moral values from people's lives, stressing that this crisis does not only resonate and affect its makers, but also extends to all humanity, east and west, indicating that this crisis is The basis for all the conflicts and wars that our world is exposed to today.
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar pointed out that Western civilization bears the largest part in the tragedy of modern man, when it sought to exclude religion from people's lives, and focused on satisfying human desires and promoting material thought.
The Sheikh of Al-Azhar touched on the human suffering today, from the lack of food and medicine, and the climate change crisis, in addition to social crises.
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