“The Gulfies play the blob like a fiddle,” a U.S. intelligence official told The Intercept. AMID MOUNTING GLOBAL criticism of his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin took time on March 1 for a call with a counterpart who has proved himself increasingly reliable: Mohammed bin Zayed, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the de...
The streets, sidewalks and roofs of cities all absorb heat during the day, making some urban areas up to six degrees Fahrenheit hotter than rural ones during the day—and 22 degrees F hotter at night. These “urban heat islands” can also develop underground as the city heat diffuses downward, beneath the surface. And basements, subway...
Russia had to settle for the Chinese Yuan while receiving payments from India for its energy exports as Moscow found the Indian Rupee to be ‘volatile’, Sergey Luzyanin said Dirham, the currency of the United Arab Emirates, could be considered for India-Russia trade, a leading Russian economic commentator said on Wednesday. Speaking at an interaction of...
As the global climate emergency intensifies, the question arises: Can Africa pursue economic development without relying on fossil fuels? While many African countries heavily depend on oil and gas exports, the continent experiences the harshest impacts of climate change despite contributing only 3% of global CO2 emissions. The need for decarbonization is evident, with South...
High in the Austrian Alps, hundreds of construction workers toil in a huge underground project aimed at storing hydropower as climate change has reduced the country’s water-dependent electricity production. Austria draws more than 60% of its electricity output from the renewable energy source, compared to a global average of 16%, with more than 3,100 dams...
Ryan Centner overcame significant challenges to investigate how Western gay men living in Dubai use their economic, social and cultural privileges to create communities where they can meet and socialise. Homosexuality is illegal in Dubai, so gay men technically risk deportation, imprisonment and even the death penalty. How can a sense of belonging be forged...
A data leak reveals years of special operations by the Geneva agency Alp Services on behalf of the secret services of the United Arab Emirates. This European scandal shakes the boss, Mario Brero, who has long ruled the opaque world of economic intelligence and smear operations. When hackers do marketing, this gives a mysterious PowerPoint...
“Mediapart reveals that a private Swiss Detective agency sent the names of a thousand Europeans to the Abu Dhabi intelligence services, qualifying them, often wrongly, as Islamists having close ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. Among the victims of this absurd filing are Benoît Hamon, Samia Ghali, the CNRS and the La France insoumise mouvement. “A...
The United Arab Emirates helps secure key transactions for the Russian offensive against Ukraine, while Dubai has become a haven for oligarchs targeted by Western sanctions. On February 25, 2022, the day after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations (UN) Security Council voted on a Western draft resolution calling for the “immediate...
One targeted company, Industrial Resources General Trading, is a Dubai-based company sanctioned for importing gold from the Central African Republic and paying the Russian mercenary outfit in cash sent directly to Moscow. It is the first Emirati company sanctioned in relation to Wagner. OFAC previously targeted another United Arab Emirates (UAE) based firm, Kratol Aviation, for...