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US restricts trade with companies tied to drones used by Russia, Houthis
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US restricts trade with companies tied to drones used by Russia, Houthis

The United States restricted trade with five companies on Wednesday that it said help produce and procure drones for use by Russia in Ukraine and by Iran-backed Houthis in Red Sea shipping attacks. The companies from Russia and China were among 11 additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which means suppliers need licenses before...

Sanctions, What Sanctions?
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Sanctions, What Sanctions?

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...

Tensions between Sudanese Armed Forces, UAE reach boiling point
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Tensions between Sudanese Armed Forces, UAE reach boiling point

Since Nov. 2023, tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—commanded by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan—and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have risen. On Nov. 27, Lt. Gen. Yasser Al-Atta, the assistant commander-in-chief of the SAF, criticized the UAE for behaving like a “mafia state” in a speech at a military headquarters. Less than two weeks later, authorities in...

Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China
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Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China

American spy agencies have warned about the Emirati firm G42 and its work with large Chinese companies that U.S. officials consider security threats. By Mark Mazzetti and Edward Wong Mark Mazzetti, an investigative reporter focusing on global intelligence, and Edward Wong, a diplomatic correspondent and former Beijing bureau chief, have reported together on Middle East...

Investors urge greater scrutiny of climate funding tools
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Investors urge greater scrutiny of climate funding tools

With governments worldwide pouring billions of dollars into the transition to a low-carbon future, banks are the linchpins for financing wind, solar and other clean energy projects. But their financing tools have drawbacks that can detract from sustainability goals. Investors have been pumping money into renewable energy funding. In the first six months of 2023,...

US security officials scrutinise Abu Dhabi’s $3bn Fortress takeover
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US security officials scrutinise Abu Dhabi’s $3bn Fortress takeover

US national security officials are scrutinising an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund’s planned $3bn takeover of New York-based Fortress Investment Group amid concerns in Washington over the United Arab Emirates’ ties to China, people close to the situation told the Financial Times. The review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an...

Climate change: Which countries will foot the bill?
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Climate change: Which countries will foot the bill?

Record-breaking heat in China. Wildfires forcing Swiss villages to evacuate. Drought ravaging Spanish crops. As the costs of climate change rack up, a debate is surging among governments: who should pay? The question has been in the spotlight amid this week’s climate talks between the U.S. and China, where the world’s two biggest economies tried to find ways to work...

Briefings on UAE-China ties revive lawmakers’ worry about Mideast ally
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Briefings on UAE-China ties revive lawmakers’ worry about Mideast ally

A senior Democratic lawmaker who backed legislation last year asking intelligence agencies to examine and report on the ties between the United Arab Emirates and China says he is alarmed at what he has learned since then.  Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., is one of several lawmakers with intelligence access sounding alarms about China’s activity in the...

Has the US lost the UAE to Russia, China?
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Has the US lost the UAE to Russia, China?

The fabric of America’s strategic ties to the Gulf region is fraying. The leader of its most consequential nation, Saudi Arabia, has essentially told the Biden administration with regard to oil supply, arms sales or nuclear power, “If you want to work with me fine, but if not, there are others who will.”   Less visible but hardly...