There are more than 16,000 sanctions imposed against Russia. Yet the Russian economy and war machine grew by 3.6 per cent in 2023 and is projected to grow another 2.6 per cent in 2024. Nearly six per cent of Russia’s gross domestic product goes towards military spending. At a time when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is...
Last September, I had argued why “a war of arms and a peace of commerce cannot co-exist”. This is a follow up to that and events of the last 2 years sadly reinforce the point. With Russia’s GDP (troublingly) growing by 3.6% in 2023, Putin is overseeing the fastest-growing G7 economy with unemployment at an...
Extreme heat, drought, wildfires, and flooding, as experienced in recent years, will worsen in Europe even under optimistic global warming scenarios and affect living conditions throughout the continent. The EEA has published the first ever European Climate Risk Assessment (EUCRA) to help identify policy priorities for climate change adaptation and for climate-sensitive sectors. According to the assessment,...
Tax discounts and opportunities to boost exports have reportedly been behind the move to open new branches © Getty Images/da-kuk Russian businesses have opened nearly 12,000 branches in Serbia, the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan since 2022, the news outlet Izvestia reported on Monday, citing industry data. Serbia topped the list with 9,000 new...
The two countries look like allies—but are increasingly regional competitors. The Israel-Hamas war unfolded amid an apparent regional trend of peaceful coexistence. The Middle East’s transformation along these lines has been represented by the seemingly ever-closer alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as symbolized by the apparent friendship between their respective de...
The new sanctions announced by the UK Foreign Ministry target 29 individuals and companies operating in and supporting Russia’s gold, oil and strategic sectors. Britain sanctioned on Wednesday a network of companies based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) that it accuses of being responsible for channeling more than $300 million in gold revenues to...
The Acropolis has stood above the city of Athens for centuries, its ancient walls and pillars withstanding war, siege and conquest. But as temperatures crested 40C across southern Europe this month, Greece’s top tourist attraction briefly fell victim to extreme heat. Officials shut the site for several hours during the hottest parts of the day,...
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates often have seemed like two sides of the same coin, to western eyes at least: two powerful, oil-rich monarchies, both allies of the United States and avid consumers of American weapons, united in their determination to maintain regional security and stability on their terms and in cooperation with...