WTO forecasts gradual trade recovery in 2024, 2025
Global goods trade is on course for modest growth throughout 2024 and 2025, despite risks emanating from the conflict in the Middle East, the World Trade Organisation forecast Thursday...
Tags : Middle East
United States in the Middle East
OVER the past year, mindful that I have been blessed to live under Oregon鈥檚 tranquil skies, I reflect upon the Palestinians and Lebanese who begin and end theirs days under skies fraught with drones and bombers...
Oil prices rise
Oil prices rose and major stock markets mostly retreated Thursday as investors reacted to fears of widening conflict in the Middle East and awaited a key US jobs report...
Oil prices rise on ME worries
Stock markets wavered while oil prices extended a rally Wednesday as Iran鈥檚 missile attack on Israel fanned fears of a Middle East-wide conflict...
US VP rivals defend Trump, Harris in polite debate
US vice presidential contenders JD Vance and Tim Walz faced off in a surprisingly civil debate Tuesday, despite tense moments on the hot topics of migration, abortion and the threat of war in the Middle East...
Biden ready to adjust US forces in Mideast
President Joe Biden ordered US forces in the Middle East to be adjusted 鈥榓s necessary,鈥� the White House said Friday, after Israel launched a wave of strikes on Lebanon鈥檚 capital...
US sending more troops to Mideast as tensions grow
The United States is sending a 鈥榮mall number鈥� of additional troops to the Middle East in response to rising tensions in the region, the Pentagon said on Monday, giving few further details.
New device blasts kill nine, wound 300 in Lebanon
A second wave of device explosions killed nine people and wounded more than 300 in Hezbollah strongholds of Lebanon in the Middle East on Wednesday, officials said, stoking fears of an all-out war in the region.
Iran president deepens Iraq ties on first foreign trip
Iran and Iraq on Wednesday signed more than a dozen agreements to deepen already strong ties as Masoud Pezeshkian visited Baghdad on his first foreign trip as president of the Islamic republic...
鈥楽ignificant鈥� risk of wider Middle East conflict: UN
A broader regional war in the Middle East where conflict already rages between Hamas and Israel remains a 鈥榮ignificant risk鈥�, the head of the UN peacekeeping force warned on Friday.
Israel and next big war
THE push towards an all-out war in the Middle East is moving out of its sleepwalking phase to that of conscious eschatological reckoning. A blood filled, fiery Armageddon will reveal the forces of virtue, linking the evangelicals of the United States with the right-wing Jewish nationalists in Israel. That appalling prospect is certainly not one to discount:..
War clouds in ME
WITH the targeted assassination of Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on July 30 and a Hezbollah commander in Beirut a day before, the Middle East is once again overcast by the dark clouds of a possible war. Israeli officials are gloating that the head of Hamas, which had carried out the October 7, 2023, strike on Israel, has been killed...
US announces deployment of more warships in Mideast
The United States will bolster its military presence in the Middle East, deploying additional warships and fighter jets to protect US personnel and defend Israel amid...
Iran鈥檚 supreme leader appoints Masoud Pezeshkian president
Iran鈥檚 supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday gave his official endorsement of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian as the Islamic republic鈥檚 ninth president.
Immediate benefits, long-term risks
IN THE past decade, the youth from economically marginal class in Bangladesh are increasingly seeking employment opportunities in foreign countries, predominantly in the Middle East, Europe, and America. This phenomenon, driven by the allure of quick financial solvency, is becoming a defining characteristic of our labour market...
Death of migrant workers must be investigated
THE plights of exploited migrant workers have fallen on deaf ears of successive governments as the number of death in destination countries continues to increase. The Wage Earners and Welfare Board says that at least 4,261 Bangladeshis died abroad in July 2023鈥揓une 2024. Official statistics also report a staggering 41,053 death in 2002鈥�2021...
Preparing for a Middle East war
REPORTS from the Middle East these days have two things in common: All the parties wish to avoid a war, yet all the movement is towards one, centred in Lebanon...
Gaza war rages as mediators study Hamas reply to truce plan
Deadly fighting rocked Gaza on Wednesday as US top diplomat Antony Blinken on a Middle East tour pushed for an elusive truce and hostage release deal to end the war raging since October 7...
United States in Middle East
AFTER Iranian prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh (1951-53), was overthrown in a US-British coup, he stated: 鈥業 am aware that my fate must serve as an example in the future throughout the Middle East in breaking the chains of slavery and servitude to colonial interests.鈥�..
Major powers urge Gaza truce
Western and Middle East powers threw their support behind a truce deal outlined by US president Joe Biden as Israel on Tuesday mourned four hostages...
Chinese president Xi Jinping calls for Middle East peace conference
Chinese president Xi Jinping called on Thursday for a peace conference on the war between Israel and Hamas, as he addressed Arab leaders at a forum aimed at bolstering ties with the region...
Executions in 2023 highest in nearly a decade: AI
Executions around the world rose to their highest number in nearly a decade in 2023, with a sharp rise in the Middle East, Amnesty International said on Wednesday...
Women for peace
WHEN Peta Jones Pellach raves about what she describes as the 鈥榳onderful event鈥�, you can鈥檛 help but feel you missed out on something. On October 4, 2023, well over a thousand women 鈥� both Israeli and Palestinian 鈥� gathered for a kind of feminist peace movement happening..
Washington鈥檚 proxy war in Myanmar continues along China鈥檚 borders
OVERSHADOWED by ongoing fighting in Eastern Europe and the Middle East as well as growing tensions between the US and China, the ongoing conflict in Myanmar nonetheless constitutes a critical component of what is a larger global conflict...
US power shrinks in Middle East: AL
Ruling Awami League general secretary Obaidul Quader said on Monday that the power that the United States has in the Middle East has narrowed now...
Conflicting situation in Middle East may affect Bangladesh economy: Hasina
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said in parliament that the conflicting situation in the Middle East might affect the economy of Bangladesh.....
Sermon for Gaza
IN THE conflicts I covered as a reporter in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans, I encountered singular individuals of varying creeds, religions, races and nationalities who majestically rose up to defy the...
Reeling from boycott call, Mcdonald's profit edges up amid higher US sales
McDonald's reported a modest increase in quarterly profits Tuesday as higher sales in the United States offset the continued hit from conflict in the Middle East.
De-dollarization and BRICS鈥� ascendancy
IN THE aftermath of the prolonged conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the aggravating Middle East crisis, where escalating humanitarian crises compound existing tensions, the global landscape has undergone...
London stocks strike record
London鈥檚 FTSE 100 stocks index hit record highs Tuesday, catching up with major global peers that have struck all-time peaks this year as inflation cools...