UPDATE: Old Drapatyi remarks on Donbas resurface, seized on by Russian media

Comments Ukraine's new commander-in-chief, General Mykhailo Drapatyi, made in a 2023 interview about the population of Donbas have resurfaced this week and are being heavily amplified by Russian state media.

Iran's Ghalibaf presses Iraq on unity against Israel in Tehran talks

IranianParliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Ghalibaf urged cooperation with Iraq against Israel at talks with Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi in Tehran, closing a visit that produced four bilateral agreements.

Israel secures largest arms sale in its history of $4bn to Greece

Greece's National Security Council has approved a $4bn procurement of Israeli air defence systems from Rafael and IAI, the largest defence export deal in Israel's history.

Albanian police use water cannons as anti-government protesters clash in Tirana

Lithuania drafts contingency plan in case AirBaltic scales back operations

Lithuania is preparing contingency measures in case Latvia's AirBaltic reduces services or withdraws from the country.

Croatia's grid operator clears key milestone for €50bn Pantheon AI data centre project

Croatia's grid operator has approved the technical blueprint for connecting the planned Pantheon AI data centre to the national grid, clearing a major regulatory hurdle for what developers say will be the country's largest-ever private investment.

Uzbekistan's Uzum wins place in CNBC-Statista's ranking of world's top fintech companies

Recognised as next-generation provider delivering banking and banking-like services primarily through digital channels without relying on traditional bank branches.

Bubble Cloud to run two availability zones in Mozambique under first advanced licence

Bubble Cloud Mozambique will operate two availability zones in Maputo City and Beluluane after becoming the only company licensed in INTIC's advanced category, under a new framework for cloud operators.

Russia weighs turning Gosuslugi state services portal into social network

Russia's government is weighing plans to turn the Gosuslugi state services portal into a social network with family chats, local communities and news feeds, drawing on its 120mn verified users under a strategy running to 2035.

Three crypto protocols lose $35.55mn in day of bridge exploits

Three crypto protocols lost $35.55mn in 24 hours, with AFX Trade drained of $24.15mn after bridge validator keys were compromised. July hack losses have reached roughly $97mn, ahead of June's $75.32mn.

COMMENT: Is Kazakhstan quietly ditching Russia?

With Putin’s war and economy going badly, the suggestion is that China will soon be seen as the clear number one strategic partner to the Kazakhs.

Magyar's constitutional overhaul tests Hungary's path from Orbán era

OSW analysts say PM Péter Magyar's sweeping constitutional changes aimed at restoring the rule of law relied "on tools similar to those for which Fidesz was criticised for years".

Ukraine war exposes widening missile defence gap as strikes reshape energy markets

Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure are reshaping fuel markets without significantly reducing Moscow's oil export revenues, analyst argues.

BEYOND THE BOSPORUS: Imamoglu, jailed challenger to Erdogan, given 3 minutes per criminal charge to defend himself

From prison cell, launches blistering attack on collapse of judiciary that will silence political dissent ahead of all elections.

BOFIT: Russia faces increasing challenges in balancing its economic policies

The rising costs of the Ukraine war have forced the Russian government to increase spending, causing the federal budget deficit to expand further. High spending growth is making it hard for the CBR to cut rates and revive the economy.

Russia's central bank sells record 44 tonnes of gold in 1H26

The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) sold a record 44 tonnes of gold in the first half of 2026 — the largest six-month drawdown in at least 25 years.

Romania's public marginally up in April, remains above 60% of GDP

Romania's public debt rose to 60.2% of GDP in April, above the 60% Maastricht threshold, though the monthly increase of RON1.7bn marks a sharp slowdown from the €34bn added across 2025.

Fedorov's popularity surges after sacking as Ukraine protests continue

Trust in Mykhailo Fedorov has surged since President Volodymyr Zelenskiy dismissed him as defence minister on July 15 as part of a surprise government reshuffle, with a new Rating Group poll putting him second only to the former commander-in-chief.

Kosovo trade deficit widens 16.1% to €578.3mn in June

Kosovo's trade deficit widened 16.1% year on year to €578.3mn in June as imports reached €680.3mn against exports of €102mn, leaving export coverage of imports at 15%.

Polish unemployment falls to 5.8% in June, remains higher year on year

Poland’s unemployment rate rose 0.7pp year on year (y/y) to 5.8% in June, the country’s statistical office GUS said on July 23.

Has Ukraine declared war on Iran?

Ukraine's Caspian strike killed an Iranian sailor and drew a retaliation threat from Tehran. Kyiv calls it interdicting the Iran-Russia arms route, but firing on a third state's vessel outside any declared war raises a harder question.

Uzbekistan balances secular rule with Islamic revival

Tashkent is seeking to place its Islamic intellectual heritage at the centre of its national identity and foreign diplomacy, while preserving a firmly secular political system.

China to open Afghanistan border after nearly a century? Iran to bomb “Trump” route? “Cargo corridor” journalism is where it’s at nowadays

Wars are reshaping countries’ thinking on how to get goods in and out.

COMMENT: The four-power alliance that needs no treaty

An Ankara conference has urged a Turkey, Russia, China and Iran alliance to deter the US. The treaty may never be signed, but the trade flows, pipelines and payment systems suggest the bloc already exists in all but name.

AI boom gives Poland and Hungary new export opportunities

Central European economies are emerging as unexpected beneficiaries of the global artificial intelligence boom, with Poland and Hungary seeing growth in exports linked to AI infrastructure.

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.

KYIV BLOG: Ukraine’s new PM: one step forward, one big step backwards

Ukraine just got a new Prime Minister, Serhii Koretskyi, an oil and gas man that cut his teeth as an oil trader in the private sector before going to run Ukraine’s two biggest energy companies: Ukrnafta and Naftogaz.

TEHRAN BLOG: Tehran returns to routine as war resumes, but nerves remain frayed

Tehran's cafés and traffic jams are back weeks into renewed war, but residents interviewed say inflation and the cost of rebuilding now dominate conversation, with little appetite for another round of fighting.

Iran adds 668 MW of generating capacity in a week as summer shortages bite

Iran added 668 MW of generating capacity in a week, including 70 MW of solar and a 160 MW combined-cycle unit at Asaluyeh, as Energy Minister Abbas Aliabadi pointed to weekly additions amid summer power shortages.

Low Danube levels threaten Serbia’s river traffic, disrupt fuel imports

Exceptionally low water levels on the Danube are threatening to disrupt river navigation in Serbia and have slowed imports of petroleum products, adding pressure to fuel supplies amid high demand and elevated global oil prices.

Super El Niño arrives more than a month early

Sea surface temperatures in the Niño 3.4 region of the tropical Pacific have remained above the +2.0°C threshold for a "super" El Niño for more than a week, reaching an anomaly of around +2.1°C by mid-July — more than a month early.

Turkey's unlicensed solar capacity hits 24.2 GW

Unlicensed rooftop and self-consumption solar capacity in Turkey reached 24.2 GW by May 2026, taking total installed solar capacity to around 27 GW, according to grid operator TEİAŞ data.

Climate change, not dams, driving Caspian Sea shrinkage, researcher says

The Caspian Sea's decline owes more to climate change than to dams or river abstraction, a water policy researcher says, with the Volga's navigation-focused dams limiting draw-off and Tehran's groundwater and wastewater plans making little progress.