Iranians have grown accustomed to high inflation and rising prices, yet recent macroeconomic trends are unprecedented.
Iran’s official inflation rate is reaching new highs. The Statistical Center of Iran (SCI) — the country’s main statistics agency — reported a monthly inflation rate of 12.2% and a point-to-point rate of 52.5% for the Iranian month ending June 21. Both are record numbers.
Time is running out to prevent what Yemen envoy Tim Lenderking warns will be a “massive oil spill the likes of which the world has not seen.”
Off the coast of Yemen lies an aging oil tanker that could rupture at any moment. Experts say it’s not a matter of if but when the FSO Safer leaks more than one million barrels of light crude oil into the sea — four times the amount spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989.
With Syria’s sole remaining route for cross-border aid in peril, a London-based oil company is lobbying for an initiative that would see the proceeds of Syrian oil being used for aid, with the money going to the UN rather than Damascus.
The EU partly wants the deal so it can buy oil and gas from the Iranian regime.
The EU also appears to want the nuclear deal in order not to lose its other economic relationships and trade with the ruling mullahs of Iran. Despite US sanctions, European countries are still trading with Iran; the Biden administration has yet to hold them accountable.
This week, France repatriated 16 women associated with the so-called Islamic State terrorist group and 35 children from camps in northeastern Syria.
Most states that have repatriated citizens have brought back women and children, including unaccompanied minors, but the plight of men and older boys still in detention, remains dire.
Several notable Israeli operational successes inside Iran have caused a shake-up in Iran’s intelligence leadership.
Israel is shifting from primarily targeting Iran’s regional allies to striking high-profile locations and figures within the Islamic Republic itself.
At the recent G7 Leaders’ Summit in Germany, Western leaders formally launched a global infrastructure and investment partnership, largely designed to compete with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Since its launch in 2013, BRI has been marred by criticism of unsustainable infrastructure projects in some recipient countries—from debt traps to environmentally degrading and democracy eroding projects.
A US based Nigerian medical Doctor, Dr Olalekan Ogungbemi, has asked Nigerian government to stop paying Lip service to the fight against human trafficking saying funding agencies involved is necessary to stem the increasing cases in Nigeria.
Gabon and Togo’s recent decision to join the Commonwealth seemed like a blow to France – but was it?
On the face of it, France seems to be losing ground in Africa. It was forced out of Mali and appears to be losing popular support elsewhere in the Sahel. And then last week, two Francophonie members, Gabon and Togo, joined the Commonwealth at its biennial summit in Kigali.
As Mozambique looks to move on from its violent past, a UN-led programme is supporting efforts to reintegrate former combatants, and give them a chance to lead productive, peaceful lives in their communities.