Iraq’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is projected to grow by 8 percent in 2022, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a report this week, but warned of overwhelming reliance on oil. The IMF said that “high oil prices have provided Iraq’s economy with much-needed respite after a near-crisis in …

The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backs a resolution urging Israel to give up its nuclear weapons and join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). During its meeting on Wednesday, 149 voted in favor and six against the text of a resolution whose earlier version had been approved in …

More than a hundred human rights organizations have called on US lawmakers to support a war powers resolution aimed at stopping Washington’s military involvement in the ongoing Saudi war on Yemen, which has entered its eighth year. “It’s been almost two months since the UN-brokered truce in Yemen expired, violence …

Thousands of Britain’s Border Force workers announce a Christmas period strike over pay, joining thousands others of striking employees in various economic sectors across the country. According to Press TV, the workers’ Public and Commercial Services Union announced the industrial action on Wednesday. It said the protest move stands to …

More than 1,100 journalists and other employees at The New York Times plan to stage a 24-hour strike, in what would be the first such move at the newspaper in more than four decades. The newspaper’s staffers signed a pledge not to work for one day on Thursday unless a contract deal …

EU leaders are furious with Hungary for blocking an eighteen billion euro financial aid package for Ukraine, the first tranche of which is due to be released to Kiev next month. According to Press TV, finance ministers from the twenty-seven-nation bloc came together on Tuesday to try and resolve the …

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Saudi Arabia on a visit hailed by Beijing as “epoch-making” as the proximity between Beijing and Riyadh grows amid the Arab kingdom’s souring relations with the United States, particularly over the Saudi support for oil output curbs. The Chinese leader arrived in Saudi …

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani has departed to the Saudi capital, Riyadh, to participate in the China-Arab Summit, an official statement by his bureau said on Wednesday. A source told said that Prime Minister al-Sudani will hold a series of meetings with the Saudi Monarch Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, Crown …

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko says attempts to remove Russia from the Group of 20 (G20) are bound to fail. The House and Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday excluded Russia from the Group of 20 and other entities in an agreement on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) …

Poland has received a first batch of weapons from South Korea as it boosts its military amid Russia’s special operation in Ukraine. According to Press TV, a first shipment of tanks and howitzers bought from South Korea arrived at Poland’s Gdynia Port on Tuesday. In a first phase, the country has …

The Chinese government has announced a broad, nationwide loosening of strict health protocols imposed in the past years due to the outbreak of COVID-19. On Wednesday, Beijing declared a relaxation of its COVID-19 prevention and control protocols, which were largely in place since the pandemic erupted three years ago, announcing …

The external debt of developing economies has more than doubled from a decade ago to $9 trillion in 2021, the World Bank said Tuesday, warning the debt crisis facing these countries has intensified. The pandemic has forced many countries to take on more borrowing, and World Bank President David Malpass …

Israeli news website i24NEWS quotes the Saudi FM as saying that “the direction of Saudi-Israeli relations is normalization.” Senior diplomatic officials said the normalization process between Saudi Arabia and the Israeli occupation is a matter of time, the Israeli news website i24NEWS reported on Tuesday, citing an official document it …

‘Expected side effects were in-keeping with what can be anticipated from the vaccine in this age group,’ regulator says Britain’s health regulator on Tuesday authorized the use of a Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for infants and children aged six months to 4 years. In a statement, the Medicines and Healthcare products …

Britain faces widespread industrial unrest in the run-up to the Christmas holiday and into January as workers struggling with double-digit inflation resort to strike action to demand better pay and working conditions. Below are some of the industries in which labour unions have undertaken or threatened strikes, echoing actions across …

Russia and Ukraine said on Tuesday they had exchanged 60 prisoners of war on each side in the latest of a series of such swaps. Russia’s defence ministry said the 60 freed Russian soldiers would be flown to Moscow to receive medical care and psychological support. In a video shared …

Google’s Jigsaw subsidiary is launching a new anti-misinformation project in India, aimed at preventing misleading information that has been blamed for inciting violence, a top executive said. The initiative will use “prebunking” videos – designed to counter false claims before they become widespread – circulated on the company’s YouTube platform …

Russia says it currently sees no prospects for talks on Ukraine, days after US President Joe Biden said he would sit with Russian President Vladimir Putin “if he’s looking for a way to end the war.” Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that he agreed about the need for …

An alleged malfunction has caused a fire in an electrical transformer at the Carmel Olefins plant in the city of Haifa in the northwestern part of the occupied Palestinian territories. According to reports, fire and rescue teams were called Tuesday morning to the Bezan complex following receiving calls about smoke …

Iraqi security forces on Tuesday managed to kill a suicide bomber in an intelligence operation in the holy city of Karbala, spokesperson to the Commander-in-Chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces, Major-General Yehya Rasool, announced. Rasoul said in a statement that a force from Karbala’s Operations Command carried out a search …