Author: Steven Sahiounie

An increasing number of people will forgo the tradition due to soaring prices, the news outlet reports, citing a survey. Almost a quarter of Germans won’t buy Christmas presents this year because of high inflation, Bild newspaper reported on Saturday, citing a survey by the Institute for New Social Answers (INSA). According to the report, 23% of respondents said they will not buy Christmas presents at all, while 22% said they will have to use their savings to buy gifts. A further 3% said they may be forced to incur debts to buy presents. Overall, less than half of those…

Washington’s latest inflation battling legislation has been branded discriminatory by European officials. The EU should file a lawsuit with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the controversial US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Bernd Lange, head of the European Parliament’s Trade Committee, told the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper on Saturday. “My assumption is that the negotiations between the EU and the US will not be able to help agree even on small changes in the implementation of the IRA. The basic structure of the IRA will remain in place. In this regard, I think it is necessary for the EU to quickly…

Many teachers say they are also seeing pupils without adequate winter clothing. Over half of teachers in England say the number of students ineligible for free school lunches and unable to afford a meal is increasing, according to research published by the educational charity Sutton Trust on Friday. The poll carried out by the organization has revealed that 52% of senior leaders in state schools saw the number of those pupils rise during the autumn term, reaching 59% of those in the most deprived schools. More than half (54%) of state school teachers polled by Sutton Trust said that more…

Half of the country’s external transactions are now being made in other currencies. The share of the US dollar and the euro in Russia’s cross-border payments has fallen by more than a third since the beginning of the year, from 79% to about 50%, the country’s Central Bank announced this week. While the bulk of export and import settlements remain in dollars and euros, these payments are hampered by sanctions, as many Russian banks have been disconnected from the Western financial messaging system, SWIFT, and are now unable to carry out certain transactions. The use of China’s yuan by Russian…

Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator Football diplomacy brought Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan together in Doha for the opening of the World Cup 2022 in Qatar. Years of tension between the two were broken with a friendly handshake. The big differences between the two large countries centered on Erdogan’s support of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization banned in Egypt, Syria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and UAE, but not banned in America. Erdogan said later that the ministers of both countries will meet and begin a process that may develop into talks to build the…

Moscow has said it will ref.use to supply crude to states which attempt to implement the scheme. The Group of Seven nations, plus Australia and the EU, have agreed on a price cap for Russian seaborne crude oil at $60 per barrel, paving the way for official approval over the weekend. Moscow has repeatedly stated that it will not sell oil to nations that take part in the scheme, warning that the cap will wreak havoc in the energy markets and push commodity prices even higher. The measure will come into effect on December 5 or “very soon thereafter,” according to a…

The EU and G7 have agreed to a $60 per-barrel ceiling for the purchase of Russian crude. Moscow is not planning to recognize a Western-imposed price cap on Russian seaborne oil exports, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, adding that the government is currently carrying out a review of the situation. “Now we are analyzing,” Peskov told journalists. “Some preparation was carried out for such a ceiling. We will not accept this ceiling, and we will provide further information on how the work will be organized after the review.” On Friday, the EU finally agreed to cap the price of Russian…

Most cryptocurrency companies will probably fold in the wake of the FTX collapse, the BlackRock boss says. The collapse of the FTX exchange threatens to topple more cryptocurrency companies, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink warned during the New York Times DealBook summit. BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, is among the financial firms affected by the bankruptcy of the Bahamas-based crypto exchange. Fink’s company manages $10 trillion in assets on behalf of clients ranging from huge pension funds to high-net-worth individuals. “I actually believe most of the companies are not going to be around,” the long-time skeptic of cryptocurrencies stated. Fink…

Peter Szijjarto says the measure will harm Europe’s economy. Hungary has been granted an exemption from the price cap on Russian oil set by the EU and the Group of Seven (G7) countries, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Saturday. “During the negotiations on the oil price cap, we fought hard for Hungarian interests, and in the end we succeeded: Hungary was exempted from the oil price cap. Once again, we have succeeded in protecting the security of our country’s energy supply,” Szijjarto wrote on his official Facebook page. He also criticized the initiative, saying it is “high time”…

Spiraling inflation is not enough to cover soaring production costs, food producers say. Food prices in France may rise significantly starting next year, as producers have asked retailers for double-digit increases on their products, a representative of the French Federation of Trade and Distributors, Jacques Creyssel, said this week. The demand for product revaluation comes amid spiraling inflation and production costs that are “extremely high”, according to Creyssel. Food producers have requested price hikes of between 15% and 25% for a number of items. Such an increase is well above the tariffs negotiated last year when manufacturers asked for an average…