Latest Updates

Ukraine drones hit St Petersburg oil terminal as Russia's SPIEF investment forum kicks off

Ukraine hit St Petersburg oil terminals on the morning of June 3 just as Russia’s flagship St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) kicks in a message designed to show that nowhere in Russia is safe from Ukraine’s long-range drones.

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MOSCOW BLOG: Germans return to SPIEF as Russia sanctions resolve starts to fray

German businessmen are going to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russia’s premier investment forum, in a public show of the fraying commitment to cutting off commercial ties under the sanctions regime.

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Aura Energy targets 2026 FID for Mauritania uranium mine following deal with "major" nuclear utility

Dual-listed Aura Energy targets final investment decision on its Tiris uranium project in Mauritania by end 2026 after signing a strategic MoU with a "major international nuclear utility".

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Erdogan stole 2023 election win says Kilicdaroglu man

Reporter responds: If that is the case, why is ‘poll theft victim’ Kilicdaroglu playing along with political engineering that opens way to consolidation of Turkish leader’s power?

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Kremlin collects $3bn from Russia’s oligarchs in "voluntary contributions" to the budget

Russia has collected RUB225bn ($3.1bn) in "voluntary contributions" from major businesses as of late May as the Ministry of Finance (MinFin) scrambles to raise more money for the increasingly pressured budget.

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Hungary’s battery boom is causing a water crisis

Hungary’s ambition to become Europe’s electric vehicle battery hub is colliding with a growing environmental reality: the country is running short of water, Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) said in a report.

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Asia’s EV race speeds up as China’s champions challenge Tesla

As of mid-2026, China remains the centre of gravity in the EV world.

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Battery bottleneck threatens India’s renewable energy ambitions

In part in order to reduce its heavy reliance on imported energy, India has an ambitious plan in place - a renewable energy capacity of 500GW by 2030.

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Protesters break through police cordon in Tirana as anger grows over Trump-linked resort project

Panama moves to shed its tax haven status, on its own terms

Two killed in Kenya protests over US-backed Ebola isolation centre

Protesters break through police cordon in Tirana as anger grows over Trump-linked resort project

Protests are part of a wider mobilisation against a $4bn tourism development backed by investors linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump.

Panama moves to shed its tax haven status, on its own terms

Panama's new 15% tax on shell companies is being sold as a clean-up. It is also a carefully negotiated minimum, designed to satisfy Brussels while preserving the offshore model that built the country's service economy.

Two killed in Kenya protests over US-backed Ebola isolation centre

The deaths occurred as demonstrations intensified over a proposed 50-bed Ebola treatment facility intended to treat US citizens affected by the ongoing outbreak.

News

Kazakhstan taking on lots of debt to China

China-Central Asia Monitor: May 22-28, 2026

Iran seeks Japanese help in rebuilding war-damaged oil sector

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has asked Japan to participate in reconstructing infrastructure damaged in recent US-Israeli attacks, including refineries, in exchange for efforts to restore normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel's Elbit Systems records $60bn order backlog

Israel-based Elbit Systems reported a $30bn order backlog in its latest quarterly results, with 71% from outside Israel, a sign foreign buyers are still relying on Israeli arms exports despite pressure during the Iran war.

Chinese mining giant Zijin wins Canadian approval for $4bn takeover of Africa-focused Allied Gold

Allied Gold operates producing gold assets and development projects across Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Ethiopia

Tensions rise between Romania and Russia after drone strikes apartment block

A drone struck an apartment block in Romania's Galați, close to the Ukrainian border, causing a fire and prompting the evacuation of dozens of residents.

Kazakhstan taking on lots of debt to China

2 hours ago

Iran seeks Japanese help in rebuilding war-damaged oil sector

15 hours ago

Israel's Elbit Systems records $60bn order backlog

22 hours ago

Chinese mining giant Zijin wins Canadian approval for $4bn takeover of Africa-focused Allied Gold

Latest Updates

News

China-Central Asia Monitor: May 22-28, 2026

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has asked Japan to participate in reconstructing infrastructure damaged in recent US-Israeli attacks, including refineries, in exchange for efforts to restore normal shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.

Israel-based Elbit Systems reported a $30bn order backlog in its latest quarterly results, with 71% from outside Israel, a sign foreign buyers are still relying on Israeli arms exports despite pressure during the Iran war.

Allied Gold operates producing gold assets and development projects across Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Ethiopia

A drone struck an apartment block in Romania's Galați, close to the Ukrainian border, causing a fire and prompting the evacuation of dozens of residents.

Tech

Russia has presented a domestically developed neuromorphic processor called “Altai”, a brain-inspired chip designed to perform artificial intelligence tasks with significantly lower power consumption than conventional processors.

The six-year facility for Poland's biggest e-commerce player will co-finance Allegro's strategic 2026-2030 plan to push its technological edge.

Despite strong potential, fragmented policies, limited access to growth capital and weak links between business and research hold the region back.

A small UK-registered biotech company believes it has found an Alzheimer's treatment that is safer, cheaper and more effective than anything currently on the market — and it has done so by revisiting a molecule first synthesised by Soviet chemists.

According to people familiar with the matter cited by the agency, the companies are examining plans to invest tens of millions of yen each, equivalent to several hundred thousand US dollars.

Opinion

The world has changed in a very fundamental way. For most of the last century the world has been run on the lines of Great Power Geopolitics: them and us; the enlightened and the barbaric; the rich and the poor.

An opposition win would not be an economic, political or geopolitical disaster.

I actually suspect that no-one seriously believes in the existence of the "Thucydides trap": not the Chinese, not the West, and probably not even Graham Allison, the author of the concept (he's too smart for this).

During his seven years as president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s attitude to Ukraine’s history has changed radically.

Core tenet of German foreign policy means a public veneer of democratic solidarity, but a reality of accommodating strongmen.

Data

New orders decrease slightly. Record reductions in backlogs and stocks of finished goods.

Index at highest since March 2024. However, “safety stock building amid disruption caused by war in Middle East” was a factor.

Poland's GDP grew 3.5% y/y in the first quarter, as household consumption and investment both weakened.

The civil servants of economic management tend to release a lower figure in the initial digestion, before revising it up in following releases.

Russia’s manufacturing sector remained in the red in May, although the pace of decline eased slightly as factories increased production to clear backlogs despite a sharper fall in new orders, according to S&P Global data.

Features

Azerbaijan is accelerating both fossil fuel and renewable energy development as it seeks to entrench its role as a reliable supplier to Europe and emerging markets, Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov told the 31st Baku Energy Forum.

Abelardo de la Espriella, the flamboyant lawyer, businessman and self-styled "El Tigre" who surged to first place in Colombia's presidential first round, has built one of the most unconventional political brands in the country's modern history.

The most useful comparison for the Iran war of 2026 is not the Six-Day War of 1967. It is the Suez Crisis of 1956. The point is being made openly in Tel Aviv, by columnists who have lost patience with the Netanyahu camp's victory rhetoric.

Russia is the only country in the world to formally recognise Afghanistan’s rulers, though Central Asia is slowly but surely building relations.

Bulgaria has barely had time to celebrate joining the eurozone monetary union at the start of this year before the European Commission is set to turn around and throw it into the rapidly growing financial delinquents club.

Blogs

Kyrgyzstan wants more infrastructure maintenance funds. Afghanistan is preparing to divert river flows for irrigation. Disagreements could mount.

Is Aleksandar Vučić finally running out of road? In Serbia, it is the question that follows every large protest.

EU sidelined as Washington warns over China and Russia's influence in new strategy document, while Xi Jinping honours Serbia’s president in Beijing.

New treaty amounts to de facto annexation of separatist Georgian republic, analysts and Georgian opposition figures say.

Venezuela has begun circulating draft regulations linked to its newly approved hydrocarbons law.

bneGREEN

Vietnam’s central province of Gia Lai is emerging as a renewable energy investment hub, with several large-scale wind power projects secured in the first months of 2026.

Experts fret over possible damage to eco-balance caused by cloud-seeding. “If you take a cloud from one place, it will harm another place,” says one scientist.

Australia installed enough battery storage capacity in 2025 to shift 53% of newly generated solar electricity beyond daylight hours, as the battery revolution accelerates.

The Philippines has emerged as China’s second-largest export market for solar panels so far in 2026, driven by a rapid expansion of rooftop installations as households and businesses seek relief from some of the highest electricity prices in Asia.

While Western carmakers rush to roll out new electric models, their production lines remain tethered to an extraction and refining network dominated by a single superpower - China.

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