Author: Steven Sahiounie

Now is “not the time” to ask for higher wages when Russia is using “energy as a weapon,” Nadhim Zahawi has said. UK unions should “send a message” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and stop “chasing inflation” with their demands for pay hikes in the public sector, Nadhim Zahawi, the chairman of the Conservative Party, has said. The top Tory official, who holds the position of minister without portfolio in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s cabinet, made the remarks during an interview with Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday. The two were discussing potential pre-Christmas strikes, particularly by nurses and ambulance drivers employed by the…

Moscow has reiterated that it will not sell the fuel to countries that support a price cap. An EU embargo on seaborne Russian crude officially began on Monday. At the same time, the bloc and its allies have also imposed a $60 price cap on oil exports. The EU embargo was agreed in June, amid the sixth package of sanctions imposed on Moscow in connection with the conflict in Ukraine. The bloc is officially stopping seaborne oil imports from Russia starting on December 5, with the exception of Bulgaria. On-land deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary, Slovakia, and the…

Aleksey Kudrin, who resigned as the head of Russia’s Audit Chamber last week, says he will now serve as an adviser at Yandex. Russia’s former finance minister and presidential adviser, Aleksey Kudrin, announced on Monday he had accepted an offer from the country’s top technology giant Yandex to become an adviser on corporate development. According to the Russian outlet RBK, Kudrin agreed on his transition to the private sector with Russian President Vladimir Putin on November 24. “Together with the management team, I will develop the corporate structure of the new holding company, which will ensure the firm’s long-term and…

The EU nation is not self-sufficient enough to stop the purchases for now, the energy minister says. Italy is still reliant on Russian natural gas, which it continues to import despite calls in the EU for a ban, according to Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin. In an interview with La Stampa daily, he said 250 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas entered Italy the previous day, including 90 mcm from Algeria, which has become the country’s “main supplier.” The minister added that 30 mcm are still coming from Russia, with the average daily volume from the sanctioned country…

The bloc may reportedly blacklist 180 Russian entities and individuals in the tech, financial and media sectors. EU officials have discussed a new sanctions package against Russia over the Ukraine conflict, Politico reported on Monday. The potential additional restrictions include nearly two hundred listings linked to key Russian industries, including the technology, financial, and media sectors. The European Commission is said to have arranged “confessionals” over the weekend to prepare what would be the ninth sanctions package against Moscow. An unspecified number of EU member states took part in the deliberations. “Among the measures on the table are a target of 180…

The transition to national currencies in mutual settlements is speeding up, according to PM Mikhail Mishustin. Russia and China are increasingly switching to their national currencies in trade, with nearly half of the two countries’ transactions carried out in rubles and yuan, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has revealed. The statement was made during a video conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Monday, with Mishustin expressing hope that the use of the national currencies instead of the US dollar and euro will grow further. “This transition… will be actively gaining momentum. This is the kind of settlement that should prevail.…

The platform’s biggest client has restarted its advertising campaign, the news outlet reports citing CEO Elon Musk. Apple has “fully resumed” advertising on the Twitter social media platform, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing CEO Elon Musk’s comments during a Twitter Spaces conversation the day before. According to the report, Musk also said the tech giant is Twitter’s biggest advertiser. Neither Twitter, nor Apple responded to requests for comment, but Musk on Saturday tweeted: “just a note to thank advertisers for returning to Twitter.” Musk met with Apple CEO Tim Cook last week, following Musk’s repeated criticism of the tech giant for…

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…