Author: Steven Sahiounie

U.K. inflation dropped sharply in April, as energy prices retreated and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began to drop out of the annual consumer price comparison. Headline CPI inflation came in at 8.7% year-on-year, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday, down from 10.1% in March but above a consensus estimate of 8.2% from a Reuters poll of economists. “Electricity and gas prices contributed 1.42 percentage points to the fall in annual inflation in April as last April’s rise dropped out of the annual comparison, but this component still contributed 1.01 percentage points to annual inflation,” the ONS…

Russia’s oil revenues rebounded in March and April to reach the highest level since November last year, according to a new report, bolstering President Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance the Kremlin’s onslaught in Ukraine. Analysis published Wednesday by the Centre for Research in Energy and Clean Air, an independent Finnish think tank, found that Russia’s revenues from oil exports have recovered from levels reached in January and February. The findings show that Moscow has recently been able to successfully claw back earnings from fossil fuel exports despite the imposition late last year of import bans from the European Union and a…

Greek stocks posted big gains on Monday after a national election that saw the ruling party achieve an unexpectedly large share of the vote. The New Democracy party’s 40.8% win, trouncing the second-placed leftist Syriza party’s 20.1%, still left it short of a parliamentary majority. A new vote looks set for June 25, in which New Democracy is favorite to secure a victory under election rules that will see the party gain 50 additional parliamentary seats, if it achieves over 40% of votes again. As the result became clear at the start of the week, stocks measured on the Athens General Composite Index shot up nearly…

Cargo turnover in the bloc’s three largest hubs dropped significantly in the first quarter of the year, data shows Europe’s largest cargo ports of Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Antwerp have reported a significant decrease in container volumes in the year to date, citing the sanctions-induced termination of Russian cargo transit as among the main reasons for the decline. Prior to 2022, about 70% of imports to Russia passed through the three ports, according to media reports citing shipping data. The German port of Hamburg announced last week that cargo turnover in the first quarter of 2023 was down 10.2% year-on-year to 28.1 million…

“We sincerely cherish the long-standing bonds of good-neighborliness, partnership and cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. This is of particular importance for us in the wake of increasing turbulence in the international arena,” Mikhail Mishustin stressed Russia and China will stand together to repel the collective West’s attempts to maintain its global dominance, and will push back hard against such dangerous ambitions, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday. “We sincerely cherish the long-standing bonds of good-neighborliness, partnership and cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. This is of particular…

Earlier, the US State Department threatened to levy sanctions on any company that provided maintenance services to Russian planes at Georgia’s airports Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on Wednesday took a dig at threats by the US State Department to levy restrictions on Georgia over its move to resume flights with Russia. “There’s no other way to call [the statements by the State Department] than interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states,” the diplomat said at a news conference. “We regard such mentoring statements from Washington as interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and in their…

The Russian foreign minister accused Washington and its allies of marginalizing the OSCE, a body that he said no longer played any role in European security Behind NATO’s latest expansion push lie the same underlying intentions as the policies of Hitler, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an international meeting of high-level officials responsible for security issues in Moscow on Wednesday. “In essence, NATO’s reckless expansion reflects the same intentions that undergirded the Hitlerian doctrine of ‘Drang nach Osten’ (German for ‘Drive to the East,’ which was the Nazi slogan justifying the conquest of Central and Eastern European lands…

Israeli occupation forces opened fire at the area where the alleged gunfire came from inside Syrian territory. An Israeli military drone was targeted with fire from Syrian territory, during what was described by the IOF as a “reconnaissance mission”, Israeli media reported on Wednesday citing a spokesperson for the Israeli occupation army. The occupation army opened fire at sites where the alleged targeting of the drone inside Syria came from, the spokesperson added. Last April, the occupation army announced the crash of a SkyLark drone belonging to it inside Syrian territory, claiming that it was due to a technical malfunction. During the…

Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Damascus Shi Hongwei, has affirmed that resuming the participation of Syria in the meetings of the Arab League will contribute to strengthening the solidarity of the Arab countries, accelerating the steps of the Arab world towards development and renaissance, and will bring more positive factors on the road to reconstruction in Syria. Ambassador Hongwei, in a statement on Wednesday, expressed his country’s welcome for Syria’s return to the Arab League, stressing that China and Syria have a deep traditional friendship, and they will be partners advancing hand in hand on the path…

Beijing bought nearly 89,000 tons of refined aluminum from Russia in April – nearly three times the amount purchased during the same period last year and the second-highest volume on record, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing Chinese customs data. Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, between March 2022 and February 2023, Chinese imports of Russian aluminum increased by nearly 94% to reach 538,500 tons worth $1.36 billion. Russia’s share of Chinese aluminum imports stood at roughly 69% last year. Russia has in turn increased purchases of Chinese alumina – a substance used in the smelting of aluminum metal,…