Latest Updates

El Salvador’s Bukele offers to ‘ship inmates to Paris’ following fashion week controversy

El Salvador’s government has sharply criticised a Paris Fashion Week show by designer Willy Chavarría for featuring outfits resembling the prison-issue uniforms used in the country’s maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Centre (CECOT).

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Poland ends the last of Russian oil imports

Poland’s largest energy company, state-owned Orlen, has ended its last contract for Russian crude oil and halted these imports, declaring finally that it has “freed the region from Russian crude oil”.

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UPDATE: Thailand's Constitutional Court rules to suspend Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra

The court has agreed to consider her impeachment over a recent highly controversial audio clip that emerged as part of a territorial spat with neighbouring Cambodia.

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Azerbaijan arrests Russian journalists as Yekaterinburg victims' bodies return home for fresh autopsy

FSB killings of two Azerbaijani brothers in Yekaterinburg triggered a strong diplomatic response from Baku.

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ETF investment trends in Asia in 2025

While ETF markets in Asia have historically lagged behind those in North America and Europe in terms of depth and diversity, 2025 is witnessing a decisive maturing of the regional ETF ecosystem.

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CENTRAL ASIA BLOG: Kazakhstan’s uneven transformation

There have been dramatic changes in Kazakhstan over the last decade, with a thriving fintech sector and an embrace of green technologies, but the country is still grappling with familiar political and economic challenges.

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A perfect storm as Israel’s war on Iran pushes the Taliban towards total collapse

The convergence of Israel’s military strikes on Tehran has created a catastrophic domino effect of potential regime collapse in Afghanistan, not Iran.

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SAS orders 45 Embraer jets worth $4bn in largest fleet deal since 1996

€220,000 Rolls-Royce owned by Russia-linked mayor of Kaunas hits pedestrian

UPDATE: Thai prime minister suspended by court over leaked audio – Cambodia regards this as Thai internal issue

SAS orders 45 Embraer jets worth $4bn in largest fleet deal since 1996

Scandinavian airline SAS plans to buy up to 55 E195-E2 aircraft from Brazilian manufacturer Embraer in a deal worth approximately $4bn.

€220,000 Rolls-Royce owned by Russia-linked mayor of Kaunas hits pedestrian

Visvaldas Matijosaitis, mayor of Kaunas, Lithuania’s second-largest city and one of the country's richest men, struck a pedestrian with his ca €220,000 Rolls-Royce on June 30 at a pedestrian crossing in the city.

UPDATE: Thai prime minister suspended by court over leaked audio – Cambodia regards this as Thai internal issue

Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been temporarily suspended from her duties following a decision by Thailand’s Constitutional Court to accept a petition submitted by a group of senators,

Latest Updates

News

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on June 30 that his government is considering reintroducing border controls with Lithuania in response to increased concerns about irregular migration.

Latvia’s government ministries have begun outlining a series of proposed cost-cutting strategies aimed at easing pressure on the national budget. More than 250 suggestions have been submitted to the Ministry of Finance.

A US court has ordered Argentina to surrender its 51% controlling stake in national oil company YPF as partial compensation for its controversial 2012 nationalisation of the energy giant.

Turkey’s media watchdog RTUK has lifted a ban that was introduced to block Deutsche Welle Turkish back in 2022.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on June 30 formally ending US sanctions on Syria.

Tech

An Iranian communications expert has warned that the country's internet filtering policies have inadvertently led millions of users to install VPN applications that may serve as espionage tools for foreign intelligence services.

Companies link up to expand potential in turning bold ideas into smart business.

Funds raised to be directed toward original content production and expanding Gley’s catalogue of children’s and international programming.

“A7A5” said to be first stablecoin pegged to ruble. Russian defence sector bank also behind it.

No formal announcement of end to year-long TikTok ban but users across the country report full access to the platform.

Opinion

Iran launched its first-ever direct railway connection to China in May, its first rail link to Asia that does not rely on transshipment through seaports or Russia, significantly improving its national security by avoiding the seaborne exports.

Hold the indignation. Let the poor man explain.

Central Asia is bottled up by an unstable Afghanistan. It would dearly love to open a southern corridor that leads to the huge and lucrative markets of Southeast Asia that could transform the economy of the region.

Sanctions against Russia and the voluntary boycott of Russian ports and transit routes by major global transport and logistic companies, created the need for alternative routes to carry the growing volume of trade between China and Europe.

Iran’s business leaders now face a critical juncture. This moment of ceasefire gives us the space to pause, to evaluate, adjust course and prepare for multiple eventualities.

Data

Czechia’s manufacturing PMI index, compiled monthly by the S&P Global market intelligence company, posted 50.2 in June, returning above the 50-point mark separating growth and decline for the first time in over three years.

The Polish manufacturing sector faced its steepest contraction in over two-and-a-half years in June, with a sharp decline in both output and new orders, according to S&P Global's latest Purchasing Managers’ Index survey published in June.

Russia’s manufacturing sector recorded its sharpest downturn in more than three years in June, as weak domestic and international demand triggered renewed declines in new orders and output, S&P Global reported on June 30.

Head of Turkey's government-run Ziraat Bank is also anticipating a significant downward move in the benchmark.

Hungary's economy continues to struggle with weak momentum and only a gradual improvement in inflation, the National Bank of Hungary said in its latest Inflation Report.

Features

Yet hardly any outcry is heard from the international community.

Milei's radical reforms have won over the Fund, but currency controls and election risks cloud the path ahead, according to Professor Diego Crochi from UCA Buenos Aires.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is pushing for closer ties with Asia as part of a new EU trade strategy to offset the growing trade war risks with the Trump administration and reforming the global trade system.

Uzbekistan’s government has launched an ambitious privatisation programme aimed at reshaping its economy and capital markets. US fund Franklin Templeton is managing a $1.68bn portfolio of 18 companies in the Uzbekistan National Investment Fund.

Russia’s banking sector faces a growing threat of a systemic crisis within the next 12 months, with internal assessments suggesting a more fragile outlook than official statements imply.

Blogs

Armenian PM offered to show the head of the church his penis to prove a point in their ongoing row. But past experience shows it’s difficult for politicians to win a church vs state standoff.

As the world’s attention remains focused on the wars in Ukraine and, more recently, the Middle East, several countries in the Western Balkans are ramping up their military capacities.

British nationals remaining in Tehran have criticised the UK government for providing no assistance or instructions following Israeli attacks on Iran.

A critical look at Azerbaijan's Global South agenda.

In the event of an escalation, Beijing would likely call for restraint and push for a negotiated settlement. It may be doing so already behind the scenes. However, its silence or perceived tilt towards Tehran could provoke criticism from the West.

bneGREEN

The Global Wind Energy Council has downgraded its short-term forecast by 24% for 2025-2029 compared with its prediction last year.

As the world’s energy system transforms at unprecedented speed, so too must our understanding of energy security. While governments continue to focus on securing supplies of traditional fuels, new critical mineral vulnerabilities are emerging.

Record-breaking temperatures for the time of year are likely to occur across a large part of western Europe in the coming days as a historically unprecedented heatwave intensifies.

In a baffling turn, Taiwan, long a technological and economic powerhouse, has allowed populist politics to sideline science and logic.

As the global economy begins its gradual but determined pivot towards decarbonisation and renewable energy, East Asia's petrochemical giants now find themselves straddling two competing imperatives – legacy industries and a low-carbon future.

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Adelle Nazarian is an international journalist, foreign policy analyst, and entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience across m....

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