multinationals are importing massive quantities of soy from the Chaco region, which is prone to deforestation. They are thus helping to destroy this biodiversity hotspot. In the first part of our report we saw how soy from deforestation-prone areas in Argentina continues to arrive in Europe, despite an EU ban...
Denmark has long been Euroskeptic
As Denmark takes over the presidency of the European Union, Danes are more strongly pro-European than at any time in the past two decades – a shift in sentiment that can at least partly be attributed to US President Donald Trump. An eye-opening survey published in March by Berlingske, a...
Russia’s Bankers Fight Inflation and the Kremlin’s War Addiction
After two years of fiscally-fueled growth and double-digit inflation, the Russian central bank is claiming a victory over galloping prices. But it’s come at a price. The Bank of Russia cut its base rate by a substantial 200 basis points to 18% on July 25, following a 100-point reduction the...
Russia targeting voters across EU, Moldova warns
Moscow is hoping pro-European Moldovans living abroad don’t go out to vote in September’s elections. Russia is ramping up efforts to influence Moldovans living abroad across Europe to try to sway critical elections next month, the EU candidate country’s security chief has warned. National Security Adviser Stanislav Secrieru “The campaign...
Death in the Kremlin’s Shadow: The Roman Starovoit Mystery
The latest dramatic episode has a plot twist that Russia hasn’t seen for decades. 53-year-old Roman Starovoit, Putin’s minister of transport, left his office in the 19th-century building in Moscow city center on July 7, recently remodeled in the ponderous traditional Russian style reserved for ministries, and walked past the...
Eurozone inflation holds steady at 2 percent
Rising food costs offset falling energy prices in July, bolstering case for ECB rate cut pause. Inflation in the eurozone stayed stable in July, as rising food prices offset declining energy costs — a development likely to reinforce calls for the European Central Bank to keep interest rates on hold....
European automakers despair of dodging Trump tariffs
All of Europe’s carmakers have reported losing millions in profit because of the tariffs, and say they’re not hopeful of getting carveouts for the sector. BRUSSELS — German automakers had hoped that months of lobbying pressure would give them extra carveouts in the EU-U.S. trade deal, but they're now reversing...
Decoding Vladimir Putin’s Baltic Strategy
How can Western analysts forecast what Russian president Vladimir Putin intends to do with the Baltic states? Since the early 2000s, Russia has increasingly acted and been perceived as an aggressive and revisionist force on the global stage. The Kremlin’s military intervention in Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea...
Europe learned to love American gas
Backroom deals, embassy contacts and brown liquor built a booming export trade. Now, the lobbyist who saw it all says the U.S. president’s dalliances with Vladimir Putin are an incoming “asteroid” for the industry. Alliances sometimes begin by accident. Sometimes they end that way, too. Especially when Donald Trump is involved....
Trump on tariff blitz ahead of August deadline
Trump accused of ‘attack on Brazilian democracy’ for sanctioning Bolsonaro judge while slapping a 50% levy on the country – key US politics stories from Wednesday 30 July. Donald Trump’s administration has imposed sanctions against the judge overseeing the prosecution of his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro and hit Brazil with...