Nicaragua has formally severed all relations with Ecuador, escalating the diplomatic fallout over a police raid in Quito to arrest a politician who was taking refuge at the Mexican embassy. The Nicaraguan government announced its decision on Saturday, declaring its “forceful, emphatic and irrevocable rejection” of the storming of Mexico’s …
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Last week’s airstrikes in Yemen by the US and UK are prompting concerns about potential impacts on oil prices. Despite media portrayal of unrest, it is prudent to exercise caution before prematurely asserting a significant spike in oil prices. The 4% surge in crude oil futures on Friday falls within …
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The hostage crisis at a TV station in Ecuador’s largest city, Guayaquil, has ended with all assailants detained and captives rescued, national police chief Cesar Augusto Zapata Correa announced on Tuesday evening. Masked gunmen invaded the headquarters of TC Television earlier that day, interrupting a live broadcast and taking journalists …
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Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to the media on Friday following the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Earlier, he met with the leaders of China, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Mongolia. In his first press conference since July, the president was asked about …
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Germany’s largest gas importer – Uniper – has been struggling to replace missing Russian gas supplies as the company’s losses are mounting, its CEO, Klaus-Dieter Maubach, admitted this week. The company might also run out of the money provided by Berlin in the form of an aid package later this …
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The Mango Tree, a vegan eatery in Taunton, Somerset, has announced it will be reinventing itself with a meat-inclusive menu following brief renovations, citing the prohibitively high cost of doing business “as a purely vegan restaurant” in a notice posted after it closed its doors on Saturday. After “an exciting …
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Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu held a telephone conversation with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday regarding safety at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Russia, which controls the plant, has accused Ukraine of shelling the facility, while Ukraine and its Western backers insist the Russians are attacking territory that …
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Richard Grenell, who negotiated a Kosovo-Serbia deal under the Trump administration after a turn in charge of the US intelligence community, on Sunday blamed the “reckless” prime minister in Pristina for the renewed tensions with Belgrade and slammed the State Department for enabling him. “What’s happening in the Balkans isn’t …
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The ongoing government crisis in Italy is playing into the Kremlin’s hands, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has claimed. The turmoil is hampering Rome’s ability to provide military support to Ukraine, as well as to secure new energy contracts, the minister told POLITICO in an interview on Friday. Critics of …
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If there had not been an active rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing over the past decades, and if Russia did not have an Asian alternative to European markets for oil and gas, it would not have been able to attack Ukraine. Does this mean China is the main beneficiary of …
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