Author: Leto Kormiade

In the Exarcheia area of Athens, gentrification threatens to bring an end to a scene of alternative culture and protest that’s had a place in people’s hearts for decades In the heart of Greece’s capital, the neighborhood of Exarcheia – historical center of radical leftwing politics, adored in equal measure by intellectual activists and scruffy late-night revelers – is under attack. It starts shortly after sunrise. Trucks come ferrying workers who climb scaffolding and start cutting back trees, shielded by barbed wire and four-meter-high metal barricades, covered in graffiti. Locals shout, bang on the fences, blast out loud music all…

Much like its ideological counterparts at HispanTV (Iranian-owned) and Actualidad RT (Russian-owned), Telesur wraps its incitement into a sophisticated and slick twenty-four-hour news platform through its website, broadcasts, and social media presence. Though it is difficult to gauge its influence, numbers suggest that Telesur’s message is impactful. Telesur has two million followers on its Spanish X account, 117,500 on its English X account, and more than half a million on Instagram. Its YouTube account has over 1.7 million subscribers, with 100,000 new subscribers and almost 7.4 million video views since October 7 (It also posts its videos on the Daily Motion). The network traditionally pushes out conspiracy theories, fake news, “whataboutism,”…

Japan and France said on Monday they will support the African Development Bank (AfDB) and Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) plan to leverage IMF Special Drawing Rights for climate and development. SDRs are rainy day foreign exchange reserves held at the International Monetary Fund, backed by dollars, euros, yen, sterling and yuan. The IMF created a $650 billion allocation of new SDRs in 2021 in response to COVID-19 and said in June it had on-lent $100 billion of SDRs to low income countries at below-market rates. Multilateral development banks (MDBs) say they can bolster climate finance in developing markets by leveraging SDRs. “The…

British researchers will again participate in the scheme from the beginning of next month The U.K. has passed the final milestone in rejoining Horizon Europe after leaving the EU science program in 2021 as part of Brexit. British researchers will again participate in the program from the beginning of next month, after the EU-UK Specialised Committee on Participation in Union Programmes formally approved a new association agreement on Monday. Speaking to reporters on a visit to Brussels to mark the occasion, U.K. Science Minister Michelle Donelan described the agreement to join the program as “a bespoke deal.” “Our association with…

Rumour and speculation in the Italian telecoms market has become the norm in recent years, thanks to TIM’s ongoing endeavours to reshape its business, another planned network sale from Wind Tre, and endless talk of Vodafone’s tricky position in the sector. While the composition of NetCo – more on that below – provides greater certainty to the TIM situation, Vodafone Italia is once again making headlines on the back of uncertainty. Fixed and broadband operator Fastweb is one of a number of companies to have been exploring a possible tie-up with Vodafone Italia, Bloomberg reported, citing the usual unnamed sources…

Political actors in Tanzania have in recent years demanded compensation from Germany for colonial atrocities committed in the early 20th century. In early 2017, the National Assembly of Tanzania stopped short of putting the label of genocide on the atrocities committed by German troops during the Maji-Maji uprising (1905–1907). During a visit to Tanzania recently, the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, asked for “forgiveness” and expressed “shame” for the colonial atrocities committed in what was then German East Africa. This was in reference to the killing of up to 300,000 people during the Maji-Maji uprising. German involvement in Tanzania began in 1890 when Berlin decided to take…

A German court ruling that wiped billions from the federal budget could drag down growth by as much as half a percentage point next year in Europe’s biggest economy, an economy ministry source told Reuters on Friday. The coalition is scrambling to fix a large hole in its finances after a court ruling blocked the government from transferring 60 billion euros ($65 billion) in unused funds from the pandemic towards green initiatives and industry support. The assessment of the ruling is an early indication of just how damaging some in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition see it, though Finance Minister Christian Lindner on…

Five major commercial banks have been considering issuing a syndicated loan to help finance South Korean companies’ arms export to Poland, an industry source said Friday. Last year, South Korean companies secured major deals worth 17 trillion won (US$12.9 billion) to supply K2 tanks, K9 self-propelled howitzers, FA-50 light attack aircraft and Chunmoo multiple rocket launchers to Poland. Their bids to sign additional contracts worth 30 trillion won with Poland this year have faced obstacles as the state-run Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank) is unable to provide loans and guarantees for the proposed sales after hitting its upper limit from…

The 35-year-old businessman came from nowhere to win the most votes in the first round of Syriza’s leadership election He is rich, handsome, openly gay, a former Goldman Sachs trader and shipowner to boot. Four weeks ago few in Athens had heard of Stefanos Kasselakis. But as the Greek American entrepreneur has shown, a month is a long time in politics. Since unexpectedly announcing his candidacy in the race to lead the leftwing Syriza party, Greece’s main opposition, the 35-year-old outsider has lit up country’s staid political scene in ways few could have imagined. What might once have seemed outlandish – a…

The long-awaited trial of two former executives of Swedish oil company Lundin begins in Stockholm on September 5. Alex Schneiter and Ian Lundin are charged with complicity in war crimes committed over 20 years ago in what is now South Sudan. The trial promises to be the longest and most complex ever initiated by the Swedish justice system, and it will be watched far beyond the country’s borders. A historic trial opens in Stockholm on September 5, both in terms of its scope and the people involved. Alex Schneiter and Ian Lundin, respectively former chairman and former director of the…