Author: Kimon Stathoglou

Northern Elders showing Buyer’s Remorse for Backing Tinubu in 2023 It seems unthinkable that the wealthy and powerful cattle-herding class could be on the margins of President Bola Tinubu’s ruling clique, but it’s thinkable now. During the eight years of Fulani-born Muhammadu Buhari, the beef-on-the hoof lobby called Miyetti Allah Cattlemen’s Association marched vast herds of bony white cattle the length of the nation over lands public and private with impunity. The herds and their rifle-carrying herders uprooted thousands of small plot farms and sent thousands of civilians to their graves in so-called farmer-herder clashes. During those years, the killers…

Sri Lanka has told hundreds of thousands of Russians and some Ukrainians staying in the country to escape the war that they must leave in the next two weeks, immigration officers said. The immigration controller issued a notice to the tourism ministry asking Russian and Ukrainian people staying on extended tourist visas to leave Sri Lanka within two weeks from 23 February. Just over 288,000 Russians and nearly 20,000 Ukrainians have traveled to Sri Lanka in the last two years since the war began, according to official data. Commissioner-General of Immigration said the “government is not granting further visa extensions” as the “flight situation has…

Moscow (28/2). Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that non-governmental organizations in Central Asia have stepped up their anti-Russian activities amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by the Russian army. Shoigu said this at the board of the Russian Ministry of Defense on February 27. According to him, there are more than 100 “large pro-Western non-governmental organisations” operating in Central Asia, which have more than 16,000 representative offices and branches. “Against the backdrop of the special military operation, these NGOs have significantly increased their anti-Russian activities in order to reduce military-technical, economic and cultural cooperation between the Central Asian states and Russia.…

French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the COP28 summit on Friday as world leaders gathered in Dubai for the second day of UN climate talks. Attendees are under pressure to step up efforts to limit global warming even as the Israel-Hamas conflict casts a shadow over the agenda France and Kenya will launch a coalition of countries in favour of creating an international tax within two years that would raise billions of dollars for developing countries most exposed to climate change. French President Emmanuel Macron told the COP28 climate conference in Dubai that his country, Kenya, Barbados and “several others” were…

The Hungarian central bank’s interest rate policy “seriously damages” the economy, Marton Nagy, the economic development minister, told business website vg.hu in an interview published on Friday. Hungary’s government has been putting pressure on the central bank to lower interest rates as the country’s inflation rate – the highest in the European Union – hits consumption and looks on track to push the economy into a recession in 2023. As inflation has eased from double-digit levels, some central banks in central Europe have started lowering interest rates, led by Hungary and Poland, which are still expected to run inflation rates…

Nyon, Manchester, Milan (19/12 – 31) The group phase of the 2023-2024 UEFA Champions League is to conclude this month. Names of the sixteen clubs who will compete in the knock-out phase have been released. On Monday, 18 December 2023, UEFA conducted the draw for the last-16 round, at their headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. Defending champion Manchester City came out from the draw with the biggest smile as they will face off with the arguably easiest opponent. Pep Guardiola’s team will Danish champion Copenhagen, who were down at 37th in the UEFA club coefficient ranking. As the current title holder,…

In response to the Supreme Court judgment today ruling that the UK Government’s Rwanda policy is unlawful, Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s Chief Executive, said: “This judgment is vital to protect people seeking asylum in this county, but the Government must now draw a line under a disgraceful chapter in the UK’s political history. “The deal with Rwanda – a country with a track record of serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture and the repression of free speech – was massively ill-conceived and cruel. “It is now time for the Government and the new Home Secretary to not…

Brussels (3/12) Governments may be doing great while the people suffer. Bombing of the Nordstream 2 pipeline, carrying cheap Russian natural gas to industry and consumers in Europe, is exerting a cascading effect on companies and employment, eventually to be reflected in rising places and sharpening inflation. Russia is steadily experiencing price increases for a variety of goods and services, Russian media report. Is there obviously not a link to the sanctions placed on Russia and the seizure of Russian funds and savings abroad? Punishment for Russia’s “Special Military Operation” to purportedly protect Russian-speaking citizens in eastern Ukraine from state…

The Russian Embassy in Helsinki recently announced it has temporarily stopped accepting applications from Russian citizens seeking to renounce their citizenship. While currently legal, several politicians have raised questions regarding dual Finnish-Russian citizenship specifically, Finnish public broadcaster Yle reports. Echoing a similar situation in January in which its Tallinn embassy likewise temporarily stopped accepting such applications, the Russian Embassy in Finland announced on its homepage Saturday that it has temporarily stopped accepting applications for the renunciation of Russian citizenship, Yle wrote Sunday. These measures are related to legislative changes to Russian citizenship rules, according to which a non-Russian parent’s consent is…

With Europeans generating packaging waste on an unprecedented scale, the roll-out of plastic deposit-refund schemes is gathering pace across Europe. The latest country to adopt this kind of measure is Romania, which will refund EUR 0.10 for each bottle returned. The day-to-day system that drives the ecological transition and is perfectly in tune with the codes of the circular economy. It involves a deposit-refund scheme for recyclable plastic. In this case, people will receive the equivalent of €0.10 for each plastic bottle returned. The scheme is due to officially launch on November 30. The launch of the RetuRO program is…