Author: Steven Sahiounie

Interest owed on Germany’s public debt has soared from €4 billion ($4.2 billion) in 2021 to €40 billion (over $42 billion) currently, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner revealed on Monday. “This is the money that we will not have enough of for other purposes in the future: education, digitalization and investment in climate protection. Thus, it makes economic sense to contain the growth of debt,” he wrote on Twitter. At the same time, the minister noted that Germany would continue to strengthen its energy security, increase assistance to Ukraine and strengthen the national armed forces. Germany’s public debt exceeds €2.3 trillion…

Russian coal exports to China via the Zabaikalsk-Manzhouli railway crossing have surged by 214% compared to last year, the Russian Consulate General in the northeast province of Harbin announced on Monday. In the first 40 days of 2023 supplies exceeded 438,000 tons, with more than 6,200 freight cars of coal exported to China, the consulate said. The Asian country is using Russian coal to generate electricity and heat in the provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning, as well as in the east of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak said that Moscow…

After months of talks, the two sides are expected to reach an agreement on Northern Ireland’s trading arrangements British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet in the UK on Monday for final talks on a deal to resolve the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the Brexit deal on trade rules for the region. In a joint statement on Sunday, Sunak and von der Leyen said they had “agreed to continue their work in person towards shared, practical solutions for the range of complex challenges around the protocol on Ireland and Northern…

The Russian economy has managed to hold up against the massive sanctions imposed by Western countries and their allies over Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby admitted on Friday. As the conflict enters its second year, Washington revealed more anti-Russia penalties, targeting dozens of companies and individuals linked to the country, and raising tariffs on Russian goods whose imports were still allowed. Meanwhile, the EU approved its tenth package of sanctions against Russia, which includes export limitations on dual-use items and technology, measures against so-called Russian disinformation, and new restrictions against individuals and…

The layoffs have reportedly impacted 10% of the company’s remaining workforce of 2,000 people Twitter has laid off another 200 employees, including some top executives, in the latest round of massive job cuts since Elon Musk took over last October. According to media reports, the layoffs started on Saturday night and many employees learned their fate on Sunday when they couldn’t access their company email accounts and laptops. The job cuts targeted product managers, data scientists and engineers. They include the head of the paid subscription service Twitter Blue, Esther Crawford. The founder of the screen-sharing app Squad, Crawford joined…

Russian oil flows to Poland have been halted due to the stoppage of payment for deliveries, Russia’s state-owned pipeline transport company Transneft announced on Monday. Transneft, which operates Russia’s section of the Druzhba pipeline, explained that it transfers oil to other countries in line with the export schedule approved by the Russian Ministry of Energy, as well as routing orders processed by freight forwarders. “Transneft is not currently transporting oil to Poland,” the company’s spokesman Igor Demin said. He noted that pumping to Polish refineries was scheduled for “the third ten-day interval” of February. However, “routing orders with confirmed resource and transit payments were…

The restrictions target exports of advanced technologies and imports of high-revenue goods The European Commission (EC) has estimated the cost of penalties imposed on Russia as part of its tenth sanctions package at a total of €12.7 billion ($13.4 billion), according to a press release published on Saturday. The EU rolled out its latest raft of sanctions a day after the one-year anniversary of the start of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. The new bans cover EU exports worth €11.4 billion ($12 billion), they come on top of the €32.5 billion ($34.3 billion) worth of goods already sanctioned in the…

A new report by WPI Strategy, ‘False Economy: How NHS medicine procurement threatens the UK’s life sciences growth engine’ argues that unless the UK takes action to reduce the rebate rates levied on branded medicines sales, the UK stands to lose £1.9bn investment in UK research and development spending (R&D) in 2028, with a cumulative £5.7bn of R&D investment lost between 2024-28. The UK spends considerably less per person on medicines than other comparable countries, using a number of mechanisms to negotiate and control pricing. However, since the pandemic, two of the key medicine price control measures used by the UK have…

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer will use World Bank data to warn that, without a change in leadership, Britain’s economy will be overtaken by its eastern European rivals over the coming few decades. Britain’s economy could fall behind that of Poland by the end of the decade, the Labour Party will say today. The party’s leader Sir Keir Starmer will use the forecast – which is based on World Bank data – to appeal for voter support in the next general election. Labour’s calculations are based on the assumption that the UK’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita continues to…

The Optus and Medibank incidents have exposed “gaps” in Australia’s existing incident response functions, according to a discussion paper released this afternoon. The discussion paper calls for regulatory changes – including potentially a new Cyber Security Act. Most controversially, the paper suggests that the government’s power to step in to assist organisations or companies respond to cyber attacks could be expanded to a wider range of circumstances. But it is worth pointing out that this is not government policy as yet. The discussion paper was released shortly after Anthony Albanese addressed the cybersecurity roundtable in Sydney. It was drafted by an expert advisory board…