Transnistria Asks for Russia protection
A short war in the early 1990s led pro-Russian forces in Transnistria to declare a breakaway state. To this day, Russia stations about 1,500 troops in the region as so-called peacekeepers, who guard huge Soviet-era weapons and ammunition stockpiles. Moldova is working to align its economic legislation with the EU as it pursues full membership
Booming Stock Market
Stocks slumped in 2022, when faced with fast-rising interest rates, and wobbled last March, during a banking panic. Now, though, both episodes look like brief interruptions in equities’ long march higher. Despite middling economic growth and the covid-19 pandemic, stockmarkets have offered annual returns, after inflation, of more than 8% a year since 2010, including dividends
Cutting China- American ties
Chinese supply chains may be less visible, but they remain extremely important to the American economy.Mr Trump has threatened enormous tariffs on all Chinese products should he become president in November. Such levies may be enough to encourage some companies to move out of China for good. Economic efficiency, provided by China’s huge scale and manufacturing
The world of Blockchain technology and Cryptos
Blockchain is the technology underpinning all cryptocurrencies, and many related products like non fungible tokens (NFTs). In essence, it is a virtual spreadsheet on which all the buying and selling of crypto is recorded. They are arranged in blocks linked together in a giant chain hence the name. Every cryptocurrency transaction is individually recorded onto
Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) tool Gemini responses
From the moment Google launched Gemini, which was then known as Bard, it has been extremely nervous about it. Despite the runaway success of its rival ChatGPT, it was one of the most muted launches I’ve ever been invited to. Just me, on a Zoom call, with a couple of Google execs who were keen
Sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz elaborated at a Berlin event on Monday on his reasons for not approving the export of Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. He named two principal problems, their range, and the likely need for assistance from German Bundeswehr troops, which he said could be construed as direct or indirect participation in the
Europe to “send” troops to Ukraine
Russia and the United States – the big power behind NATO – have the world’s largest arsenals of nuclear weapons. President Joe Biden has cautioned that a conflict between Russia and NATO could trigger World War Three. Germany, Britain and other European countries said on Tuesday they had no plans to send ground troops to
The Palestinians’ new prime nightmare
Whoever takes the reins will face three big obstacles. First, the Palestine is broke. It relies on Israel to collect taxes on its behalf, which make up 64% of its total revenue. In October Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right Israeli finance minister, decided to withhold much of that cash. The Palestine has since been unable to pay public-sector salaries
Music labels leaving TikTok over Universal Music label
Universal’s music was licensed to TikTok until earlier this year – but they let the license lapse after failing to reach an agreement over how much the app should pay artists. As a result, the label’s recording catalogue, which is around three million songs, was removed at the start of February. TikTok says it has
Russia’s 2024 election
U.S. officials and experts are most concerned that Russia could try to interfere in the election through a “deepfake” audio or video using artificial intelligence tools or through a “hack and leak,” such as the politically damaging theft of internal Democratic Party emails by Russian military intelligence operatives in 2016.Moscow and its proxies have long