Thirty-two years after the fall of socialist regimes in Eastern Europe, nationalist conservative populism is returning there with a vengeance: the recent turn of Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and some other post-socialist countries – I call them a new axis of evil – into a conservative-illiberal direction worries us all. How …
Read More »French carmakers lose hope for rebound in sales as global chip shortage & surge in Covid-19 cases drag market down
The lobbying body had expected car sales to increase by up to 10%, but those projections could be toned down, according to a spokesperson for CCFA. “We think it might be difficult to achieve 1.8 million of sales this year,” the spokesperson said, as quoted by Reuters. In 2020, registrations …
Read More »Global mission led by Interpol sees over 280 human smuggling suspects arrested, 430 victims freed
Law enforcement agencies across 47 countries participated in the mission, under which some 500,000 inspections were carried out at checkpoints and airports following local intelligence and tip-offs, Interpol said in a statement on Monday. As well as the overarching mission to combat migrant smuggling, the agency said that a further …
Read More »Global central banks to boost share of Chinese yuan while reducing US dollar holdings – survey
According to the Global Public Investor survey, published by the London-based Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), 30% of central banks plan to increase their yuan holdings over the next 12-24 months, up from only a 10% increase last year. OMFIF claims the yuan’s rise is likely to be …
Read More »China’s Xiaomi overtakes Apple in global smartphone market
Xiaomi landed a 17% share in global smartphone shipments in the second quarter of 2021, behind Samsung with 19%, a report from research agency Canalys revealed. Apple came in third, with a 14% share of the market. “Xiaomi is growing its overseas business rapidly,” Canalys Research Manager Ben Stanton stated …
Read More »Does global debt even matter anymore? RT’s Boom Bust investigates
RT’s Boom Bust asks the host of Economic Update, Professor Richard Wolff, why countries aren’t looking at the risks of loose monetary policy. For more stories on economy & finance visit RT’s business section
Read More »US & Russia agree to team up in fight against global warming as stepping stone to improved relations between Moscow & Washington
The joint acknowledgement of cooperation came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US climate change envoy John Kerry met in Moscow on Monday as part of the American’s four-day trip to the capital. Kerry is the highest-ranking official from President Joe Biden’s administration to have visited Russia since his …
Read More »Covid restrictions drag down global air travel demand by 63% – IATA
The IATA stated, however, that the situation in May looked a bit more cheerful than in April this year – by some 2.5%. The airline industry body said that international travel has been much more affected by ongoing mobility restrictions than domestic travel. International passenger demand in May was 85.1% below …
Read More »OPEC expects increase in global oil demand in 2021 amid world’s post-pandemic recovery
According to Barkind, the group and its allies expect the world’s demand for crude to increase by six million barrels per day, as global GDP is projected to grow by 5.5% in 2021 due to recoveries in such countries as China, the US, India along with the Eurozone. “The projections …
Read More »From the pandemic to aliens, the evolutionary narrative towards global order
When enforced narratives fail, abrupt U-turns are inevitable. The global Ministry of Truth is now openly promoting the Wuhan lab leak theory when not savaging the darlings of yesteryear’s ‘coronapocalypse’. One such fall guy is the British mathematical epidemiologist Professor Neil Ferguson, whose Covid-19 contagion model paralleled the 3.5-hour pandemic …
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