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Georgians continue fight for democracy after almost 500 days of protest

After more than a year of continuous demonstrations, the ruling Georgian Dream has severely cracked down on the right to protest, freedom of speech and political pluralism.

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Israel's South Pars missile strikes knock out a fifth of Qatar's LNG production

Iran’s missile strikes on Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG complex at the start of the war sent a shock wave through the $400bn global LNG market. Israel’s attack on South Pars gas complex on March 18 has locked in the worst case scenario.

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African food security threats spike as Iran war strangles fertiliser supplies, prices soar

Disruptions to fertiliser exports via the Strait of Hormuz have pushed urea prices above $700/MT, raising the risk of food inflation – and hunger – across Africa, where application rates are far below global norms.

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Belarus frees another 250 political prisoners as US eases sanctions

Belarus has released another 250 political prisoners, the largest single release to date, after cutting a new sanctions relief deal with the US, Associated Press reported on March 19.

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EU Council meeting achieves little

EU leaders had a heavy agenda at a summit in Brussels on March 19. They had to deal with a mushrooming energy crisis, a Ukraine funding fiasco and the stalled passage of twentieth sanctions on Russia. Little progress was made on solving any of them.

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Iran begins charging vessels to transit Strait of Hormuz through IRGC-controlled 'safe corridor'

Iran begins charging up to $2mn per vessel for passage through a new IRGC-controlled "safe corridor" in the Strait of Hormuz, with India, China, Pakistan and Iraq among countries negotiating access.

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Iran’s permits-for-passage through Hormuz system is developing fast

Iran has begun extracting payments of up to $2mn per tanker for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, as the informal permits-for-passage system allowing only tankers from “friendly countries” through develops quickly.

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Japan backs US push on security and energy: Takaichi

Takaichi in her latest meeting with the US president said the discussions covered co-operation on expanding US energy production and included a proposal for a joint oil reserve initiative to address supply risks linked to the conflict.

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Kosovo’s PM warns of rising tensions as Serbia holds military drills near border

African food security threats spike as Iran war strangles fertiliser supplies, prices soar

Ex-president Radev declares war on oligarchs in Bulgaria election bid

Kosovo’s PM warns of rising tensions as Serbia holds military drills near border

Tensions persist along Kosovo and Serbia's shared border, where security incidents and military activity continue to to raise concerns about regional stability.

Latest Updates

News

Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei issues a Nowruz message praising national unity and saying Iran's "front line is far bigger than the enemy's petty imagination," but again appears only in writing.

Zelensky says 228 Ukrainian counter-drone specialists are now deployed across the Gulf as Ukraine leverages its battlefield expertise against the same Iranian drone technology used in both wars.

Suspected of involvement in scheme to skim millions while he led an anti-corruption campaign.

Three killed and three wounded in a strike on a village in Iran's East Azerbaijan province, far from military targets, as attacks on civilian areas across Iran continue into the conflict's third week.

The Trump administration is reviewing plans to seize or blockade Iran's Kharg Island, which handles 90% of the country's oil exports, to force Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz

Tech

T-Bank is primarily targeting the platform to support the expansion of its car loan business, which has been developing successfully despite stagnation in the automotive market.

Nebius plans to channel the funds raised for the construction of the data processing centres and general corporate purposes.

Iran’s nationwide internet shutdown has entered its 20th day, with public access to the global web cut for more than 456 hours.

Central Asian countries commit to multiple plans and investments. Some observers, however, say Russian sanctions dodgers are exploiting their cryptocurrency networks.

Hungarian lender K&H Group is deepening its push into integrated digital services and artificial intelligence as customers increasingly expect banking to match the speed and simplicity of major online platforms.

Opinion

There are few signs of de-escalation or a resumption in energy flows from the Persian Gulf. The market is having to reprice the duration of ongoing supply disruptions. We have updated our scenarios for oil and gas markets.

Three weeks into the war with Iran, the trajectory of the conflict is beginning to resemble some of the worst-case scenarios long modelled by policymakers and analysts, according to Ilan Goldenberg, a former US Department of Defence official.

Oman has played a leading role in the mediation between the US and Iran trying to prevent the regional conflict that started two weeks ago. In a poignant opinion piece “America’s friends must help extricate it from an unlawful war."

With some 5000 US military personnel on their way to the gulf analysts have been speculating that the White House is intending to try and take control of Strait of Hormuz with the ground invasion.

Europe’s quiet revolt: how Trump’s Iran war is forcing the EU to choose between Washington’s conflicts and its own interests

Data

As geopolitical tensions remain elevated and economic measures are becoming a key foreign policy tool, sanctions continue to shape global trade and diplomacy, Statista reports.

Released on March 19, the latest Freedom in the World 2026 report finds that global freedom declined for the 20th consecutive year in 2025, with more countries experiencing deterioration in political rights and civil liberties than improvements

Poland’s industrial output expanded 1.5% y/y in constant prices in February, a changeover from a decline of 1.5% y/y the preceding month, unadjusted data from the statistics office GUS showed.

Lithuania is set to lead the Baltic growth this year with 3.6%, while Estonia is forecast to expand by 2% and Latvia by 2.5%.

Since 28 February, 2026, commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted amid the escalation of the conflict involving Iran, Israel and the United States, Statista reports.

Features

Latest polls show tightening race between opposition SDS and ruling Freedom Movement in election campaign marred by allegations of foreign interference.

Dubai faces its largest expat exodus in decades as the Iran war shatters its safe-haven reputation, with major banks evacuating staff, the stock market down 17% and the UAE mulling tax relief to retain residents.

India is the world’s largest producer as well as exporter of basmati rice. The South Asian country contributes approximately 85% of the global basmati rice volume. In India, Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are the main basmati producing states.

José Antonio Kast's fortified frontier project combines trenches, electrified fencing and military deployment, but unauthorised crossings had already fallen by more than half before he took office.

A joint attack by Israel and the US struck Iran's South Pars gas field taking the crisis in the Middle East to a whole new level.

Blogs

For more than 3,000 years, Nowruz has been Iran's national festival, but this year's war has darkened the mood.

US Commander-in-Chief, meanwhile, says he told Netanyahu “don’t do that”. But he did do that.

America and Iran have two very strategies for fighting this war.The US is still using the old school approach of building extremely powerful and incredibly accurate flying bombs that will definitely destroy anything they hit and are hard to stop.

A “permits-for-passage" system emerges as the US heads towards a strategic defeat in Iran after the White House makes a string of strategic blunders.

Caracas stands to gain from surging crude prices triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but Washington's control over its oil income means the bonanza may consolidate authoritarian rule rather than rebuild a broken state.

bneGREEN

Still one of the worst for potent mega-leaks.

Initiative aims to reduce bird mortality while supporting the expansion of wind energy in line with environmental standards.

A missile lands 200 metres from the Bushehr nuclear reactor as Rosatom warns of catastrophe risk, with nearly 500 Russian staff still on site and 300 tonnes of nuclear fuel inside the reactor.

A leading name in the Taiwanese solar sector, TSEC has seen its valuation on the Taiwanese exchange skyrocket in recent months.

Under the complaint, OCBC is said to have failed to disclose its exposure to high-carbon assets fully. This put them in a position of potentially breaching disclosure rules set by the Singapore Exchange.

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Nato General Secretary Mark Rutte warned that the West needs to prepare of the possibility that Chinese President Xi Jinping will ....

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