Kia to invest $649mn in Mexico EV plant

South Korean automaker Kia Motors will invest $649mn in Mexico between 2026 and 2028 to expand electric vehicle production, the government said on Wednesday, as the country seeks to shore up investor confidence amid uncertainty over US tariffs.

Turkish rump opposition leader Kilicdaroglu hit by rent-a-crowd scandal

Prosecutor opens case on journalist who was in the audience and wrote expose on allegedly fake supporters who were bussed in.

Record low Danube waters force Romania to shut both Cernavoda nuclear reactors

Nuclearelectrica said the controlled shutdown was required because of the "very low, unprecedented water level of the Danube", used for cooling.

Taiwan to protest to South Africa over ETA designation

Although Taiwanese travellers are not yet eligible to use the ETA system, the online application lists Taiwan as "Taiwan, China" in the drop-down menu for the passport country of issue.

Kumamoto earthquake death toll rises to 17 as rescue efforts continue

Five of the fatalities were at an Aeon shopping centre in Kashima, where an explosion followed the earthquake. Eight others died at Nippon Paper Industries' plant in Yatsushiro, where several smokestacks suffered severe damage.

Digital Silk Road: Chinese and Kazakhstan-based tech companies ink multibillion-dollar agreements

Freedom Holding Corp says it is gaining access to tech from leading Chinese businesses while building infrastructure to adapt and scale it across Central Asia.

Estonia's first remote taxi crash highlights legal grey areas

Remotely operated taxis have been operating in Tallinn for nearly a year, with fewer than 10 vehicles currently in service.

Armenia's $500mn AI data centre moves closer to completion

Armenia is preparing to launch a major artificial intelligence data centre in the city of Hrazdan, with the first phase of the project involving $500mn in investment.

Starlink officially launches in Iraq

Iraq has officially launched Starlink satellite internet services, marking a significant step in expanding the country's digital connectivity and broadband infrastructure.

Slovak InoBat seeks Nasdaq listing through SPAC merger

CEO Marian Boček says Nasdaq listing would allow InoBat to expand manufacturing capacity and pursue transatlantic growth.

COMMENT: Putin is hardening, not softening, despite Ukraine's battlefield gains

Ukraine's Western allies are preparing a final push to pressure Vladimir Putin before a winter expected to be gruelling for Kyiv, even as Ukraine's own long-range strikes campaign does real damage. But Putin is not budging.

EU needs 'Team Enlargement' coalition to drive next expansion push, think-tank says

The European Union needs a coalition of key member states to overcome political divisions and prepare the bloc for its next enlargement wave, according to an ECFR paper.

COMMENT: Russia nears a political crossroads as elites tire of the war

Russia’s war on Ukraine is entering a new phase in which the odds of escalation are rising even without any single dramatic turning point, says Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

COMMENT: Ukraine's three-tier state

Is Volodymyr Zelenskiy more focused on his own political survival than on winning the war? That is the question The Spectator's Owen Matthews asked after the Ukrainian president's reshuffled his government.

Ukraine's Caspian Sea strikes merge the Iran and Ukraine wars

“Zelensky bombed the Iranian vessel on the Caspian for the same reason his people paid Loomer to come to Kyiv and interview him: a PR campaign to try to win over Trump.”

Uzbekistan's 1H foreign trade reaches $41bn as trade deficit widens to $9.3bn

Exports decline 9%, imports move up 21%.

Azerbaijan's central bank sees no major risk to macro stability despite oil price swings

Hungary's tourism slips in June as intense summer heat, strong forint weigh on travel

The sector retains significant long-term growth potential but faces mounting challenges.

Albania targets 4% growth in 2026

Albania’s economy is continuing to expand on a stable trajectory, with stronger tax collection, rising employment and increased business activity supporting growth, Finance Minister Petrit Malaj said.

Uzbekistan's average monthly wage climbs 18% in 1H

The increase extended a multi-year upward trend, with figure now nearly double what it was at the end of 1H22.

Fujimori inherits Peru's security crisis and offers the same old answers

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in promising discipline and seven objectives. Her speech never mentioned the 50 dead from 2022-23 protests, said nothing on mining, and recycled a military security model that has failed under three presidents since 2023.

Taliban's homegrown drone programme outpaces Pakistan's defences

The Afghan Taliban's growing investment in drone technology is a direct response to their lack of a conventional air force, and Pakistan's defence establishment.

Istanbul, Dubai fintechs feel heat as US sanctions fire turned on Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani

Sentenced to death in Iran 10 years ago, business magnate and financier has made a comeback at the head of his Dot One conglomerate.

Ukraine's scam call centres earn $1bn a month, study finds

Ukraine's scam call-centre industry generates as much as $1bn a month, according to a new report by the Geneva-based Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), which estimates that around 60,000 Ukrainians work in the trade.

Ukraine's credit boom broadens as war reshapes lending

Ukrainian banks are in the middle of their longest lending expansion in 15 years, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), with state-owned PrivatBank leading a corporate-credit surge, businesses of every size turning to bank financing.

ISTANBUL BLOG: Turkey probes TV presenter who called Syria’s al-Sharaa a “terrorist with a tie”

Dubious rise to the top is questioned. Watchdog says remarks “incompatible with foreign policy vision”.

CENTRAL ASIA BLOG: Unjust bureaucratic hurdles are wrecking legit UK travel dreams

Tourist visas denied based on highly subjective assessments of financial means and intentions to use “return” section of plane ticket.

MOSCOW BLOG: The Nato-Russia clash mission creep

The stochastic war continues to escalate into a brutal tit-for-tat missile war with both sides continuously rolling out new and improved weapons that could eventually lead to a direct clash between Nato and Russia.

MOSCOW BLOG: Hitting the Wildberries warehouse is a lot more painful than it looks

The tit-for-tat missile war escalated at the weekend after Ukraine hit the largest distribution centre belonging to Wildberries, the “Amazon of Russia.” The Kremlin hit back the next day with a massive drone and missile barrage.

KYIV BLOG: What is Ukraine’s future: Afghanistan or Finland?

What is in store for Ukraine? There are two starkly different possibilities. It can become Finland — a country that lost a war, lost a tenth of its territory, swallowed neutrality, and then got rich. Or it can become Afghanistan.

EIB lends €260mn for Poland’s second-largest onshore wind farm

Tauron’s 190MW Miejska Górka wind farm in western Poland will generate enough electricity to supply nearly 200,000 households.

Wildfires ravage Southern Europe – Statista

Southern Europe’s wildfire season used to typically run from July to September, but now data shows that it is getting longer and more intense.

Sanctions on Russia backfire, leaving Spain's firefighting helicopters grounded as wildfires rage

EU sanctions on Russia have backfired, leaving Spain's best Russian-built Kamov Ka-32 firefighting helicopters grounded as severe wildfires burn across southern Europe, reported Berliner Zeitung.

Kyrgyzstan hit by highest number of mudslides in decades amid glacier melt

Eight lose lives in this year’s carnage. Six die in car swept from road.

Electrifying Asia – where EVs are reshaping power demand and fuel use

The winners are likely to be countries capable of building integrated ecosystems spanning renewable generation, batteries, charging networks and EV manufacturing.