Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, sworn in as Germany’s new chancellor on Wednesday (8 December), will already be embarking on a series of inaugural visits across Europe, accompanied by his foreign minister, Green co-leader Annalena Baerbock. The future “traffic light” coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the liberal …

The US seized two large caches of Iranian arms, including 171 surface-to-air missiles and eight anti-tank missiles, intended for the Houthi militia in Yemen. The US justice department on Tuesday said navy troops seized the weapons from two vessels in the Arabian Sea while conducting routine maritime security operations. “Iran’s …

U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he would not order the deployment of American troops to Ukraine to counter a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine. “That is not on the table,” Biden told reporters on the White House South Lawn. “The idea the United States is going to unilaterally …

A failure to prevent further Russian advances into Ukraine will have ramifications across the South Caucasus and Central Asia. A war scare in Ukraine is a pivotal moment for the West. It tests transatlantic resolve, unity, and the very foundations of NATO. Failure to prevent potential Russian military advances or …

According to the popular narrative, the role of the central bank is to navigate the economy along the so-called path of economic stability. By this way of thinking if various shocks cause the economy to deviate from this path, then it is the role of central bank policy makers to …

With the world still reeling from the global COVID-19 pandemic, nearly two years in the making, few know what to expect terrorism trends to look like heading into 2022. However, certain trends from previous years seem likely to continue and may grow more severe. The terrorist threat is arguably more …

Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi tells BIRN that Serbia is still boosting Belgrade-run structures in Kosovo – and the EU-led dialogue won’t make progress until they are dissolved. As the European Union-facilitated dialogue on normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo languishes in a stalemate, Kosovo’s Deputy Prime Minister, Besnik …

China’s Huawei has come to dominate the 5G rollout in Cyprus, with risks for data security and independent policymaking that go far beyond the island’s shores, experts warn. In October 2015, two years after a banking crisis left Cyprus in desperate need of new financing, President Nicos Anastasiades visited China …

From Marcos and Soldado to Tito and Chiquito, the drug trafficking ties between Colombia and the Balkans run deep. President Ivan Duque called it “the most severe blow” to Colombian drug trafficking in this century, comparable only to the arrest of drug lord Pablo Escobar three decades ago. The excitement …

In cutting interest rates amid spiralling inflation, the Turkish government under President Erdogan has thrown economic orthodoxy out the window. The poor face getting poorer. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plan to turn around the Turkish economy has a new victim in Finance Minister Lutfi Elvan, who resigned on December 2. But …