Author: Finance for Sight

CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Saturday it intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, as the US intensifies its strikes in Yemen against the Houthi group. The military said sirens were activated in a number of areas in Israel after the missile was launched. US President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from attacking ships in the Red Sea. The deadly strikes on the group were the biggest US military operation in the Middle East since Trump took office in January. The Houthis say their attacks on Israel and…

BERLIN: Germany’s domestic intelligence agency on Friday classified the far-right Alternative for Germany as an extremist entity that threatens democracy, a move enabling it to better monitor the party that came second in February’s federal election. The status should make it easier for authorities to use secret methods to monitor the party for example by recruiting confidential informants and intercepting communications. The AfD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The stigma as well as restrictions on civil service employment could also hamper its ability to attract members. “The ethnicity- and ancestry-based conception of the people that predominates…

BEIRUT: A Syrian war monitor said four Druze fighters were killed on Friday in an apparent drone strike on the minority community’s Sweida province heartland. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was unclear whether a drone seen at the time of the blast was operated by Syria’s government or by Israel. “Four Druze fighters were killed in an explosion on a farm in Kanaker which coincided with the drone’s overflight,” the Observatory said. The apparent drone strike came hours after Israel carried out an air strike near the presidential palace in Damascus, in what it said was…

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration proposed a $163 billion cut to federal spending next year, which would eliminate more than a fifth of the non-military spending excluding mandatory programs, it said in a statement. The White House Office Management and Budget in a statement said the proposed budget would raise defense spending by 13% and homeland security spending by nearly 65% compared to 2025 enacted levels. Non-defense discretionary spending would be cut by 23% to the lowest level since 2017. “At this critical moment, we need a historic Budget—one that ends the funding of our decline, puts Americans first,…

TEHRAN: Iran said Friday that continued US sanctions on its trade partners will not alter its policy, after President Donald Trump threatened to penalise countries or individuals dealing in Iranian oil. “The continuation of these illegal behaviours will not change Iran’s logical, legitimate and international law-based positions,” a foreign ministry statement said, condemning what it called “pressure on Iran’s trade and economic partners”. It added that such sanctions have created “deep suspicion and mistrust about the seriousness of America on the path of diplomacy”. On Thursday, Trump vowed to enforce sanctions and called for a global boycott of “any amount”…

GENEVA: The Red Cross warned Friday that the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the “verge of total collapse” after two months of Israel blocking aid to the war-torn Palestinian territory. “Without an immediate resumption of aid deliveries, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will not have access to the food, medicines, and life-saving supplies needed to sustain many of its programmes in Gaza,” it said in a statement. Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before…

LONDON: Nigel Farage’s populist, right-wing Reform UK party won a parliamentary seat in northwest England on Friday by the smallest ever margin in a parliamentary by-election in the country’s history. Reform’s Sarah Pochin beat Labour’s candidate by just six votes. UK right-winger Farage doused with drink at election campaign launch Runcorn and Helsby had previously been a safe Labour seat with the party winning more than half the area’s votes in last year’s national election.

BEIJING: The United States has approached China to seek talks over President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs and Beijing’s door is open for discussions, China’s Commerce Ministry said on Friday, signalling a potential de-escalation in the trade war. The U.S. should be prepared to take action in correcting “erroneous” practices and cancel unilateral tariffs, the commerce ministry said in a statement, adding that Washington needs to show “sincerity” in negotiations. Trump’s new tariffs take effect, with 104% on Chinese goods “Attempting to use talks as a pretext to engage in coercion and extortion would not work,” the commerce ministry said. Beijing…

JERUSALEM: Defence Minister Israel Katz warned Thursday that Israel will respond forcefully if Syria’s government fails to protect the Druze minority, after two days of deadly sectarian clashes near Damascus. “Should the attacks on the Druze resume and the Syrian regime fail to prevent them, Israel will respond with significant force,” Katz said in a statement. Israel has ramped up its support for Syria’s Druze in recent days, with Foreign Minister Gideon Saar on Thursday urging the international community to “fulfil its role in protecting the minorities in Syria – especially the Druze – from the regime and its gangs…

GENEVA: Global health funding faces historic challenges as donor countries reduce their contributions, the director of the World Health Organization said on Thursday. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the WHO upon taking office in January, saying the U.N. agency had mishandled the COVID pandemic and other international health crises. The United States has been by far the WHO’s biggest financial backer, contributing around 18% of its overall funding. “We are living through the greatest disruption to global health financing in memory,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at WHO headquarters in Geneva. The WHO revised down its…