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News

Russia has struck more than 200 Ukrainian petrol stations since June - roughly three a day - as its drone and missile campaign systematically targets civilian fuel infrastructure rather than military sites.

The first mass-production model of Russia's MC-21-310 airliner completed its maiden flight on August 3, days after President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the aircraft's Siberian assembly plant.

Moldova has introduced restrictions on electricity and water consumption as the country faces a regional energy crisis and critically low water levels in the Dniester River, its main source of drinking water.

French weekly L’Express described SIS head Pavol Gašpar as “a spy in flip-flops”.

Businesses across Central Asia and countries including Belarus, Armenia and China will feel the pain, ecommerce boss adds.

Tech

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on August 4 that for the first time comprehensively regulates the circulation of digital currencies and digital rights in Russia, TASS reported, establishing comprehensive digital currency rules.

Visa has agreed to acquire Israeli digital fraud prevention company BioCatch for $2.4bn in cash in the latest tech deal between Israeli and US tech and finance firms.

Humanoid robotics has become one of the fastest-growing corners of the global technology industry - and one of the newest fronts in the US-China tech rivalry.

Lithuania has allocated at least €2bn to strengthen air defence over the next four years.

Russia's Rassvet satellites, operated by Bureau 1440, now provide at least two communication windows of more than an hour each per day over Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian outlet Militarnyi and cited by military analyst Rob Lee on August 1.

Opinion

Bulgaria is increasingly pursuing a transactional foreign policy that risks weakening European cohesion, says a new ECFR paper.

Ukraine's long-range drone campaign against Russia's oil industry is simultaneously hitting three sensitive areas of the war economy at once: fuel production, domestic logistics of petroleum products, and fiscal stability.

The National Bank of the Kyrgyz Republic has sold almost $1.5bn through nine foreign-exchange interventions since the start of 2026.

Macro-Advisory Limited has issued its annual mid-year compilation of the best business, political and general interest books published in 1H26, covering the twelve states in the Eurasia region plus Iran and Afghanistan.

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.

Data

Bahrain risks a currency devaluation or sovereign default if the Strait of Hormuz stays shut, Capital Economics warns, with central bank reserves down from $6bn in March to just over $2bn by June and no alternative export route.

Sharpest fall in new orders in two and a half years. Confidence lowest in more than six years.

Romania’s manufacturing sector showed signs of stabilisation in July, with the BCR Romania Manufacturing PMI rising above the 50-point threshold.

The trio's investment returns directly fund national public services via the Net Investment Returns Contribution, which remains the single-largest source of Singapore government revenue.

Russia's manufacturing sector expanded at its fastest pace in 18 months in July as stronger domestic demand lifted output and new orders, although weakening exports, fuel shortages and deteriorating business confidence pointed to a fragile recovery.

Features

Ukraine has run out of air defence ammo and has little chance of getting any more before the war is decided. Bankova only option now is to do as much damage or more to Russia as Russia is expected to do to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is starting to sound desperate. A terrifying winter bombardment by Russian missiles is clearly on the way as soon as the mercury begins to fall. Kyiv is down to its last Patriot interceptor missile.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has asked Washington for an emergency package of 300 Patriot missiles, warning that Ukraine’s reserves are running dangerously low ahead of an anticipated Russian winter campagin.

Ukraine's long-range drone campaign has entered a new phase, shifting from attacks on Russia's military infrastructure to systematic strikes on the commercial ports, grain terminals and oil export facilities that underpin both countries' economies.

Emerging-market sovereign ratings have proved largely resilient to the US-Iran war in the first half of 2026, Fitch Ratings finds in its Global Emerging Markets Credit Brief for 3Q26 even though the outlook for a third is deteriorating.

Blogs

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

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

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.

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.

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.

bneGREEN

Countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Uzbekistan have sought to move up global textile value chains but climate change and water scarcity make traditional production models increasingly vulnerable, says Chatham House report.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) - technology that catches CO2 from a factory or power plant and injects it underground - is central to most official net-zero roadmaps, but remains marginal in practice and mired in controversy.

More than 40 villages south of Bahraz in Iraq's Diyala province face acute water shortages, forcing residents to rely on wells, as authorities push to dredge the Khrisan river before the next irrigation season.

Dozens of Nazi-era warships, deliberately sunk in the Danube in 1944 to stop them falling into Red Army hands, have resurfaced near Prahovo in eastern Serbia as a summer drought pushes the river to some of its lowest levels on record.

Global electric car sales rebounded sharply in the second quarter of 2026, rising 35% quarter-on-quarter to record levels in 50 countries, even as overall car sales fell around 5% y/y in the first half of the year on weaker demand in China and the US

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