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News

Bulgaria has long faced concerns over vote-buying, particularly in poorer regions, where cash or goods may be offered in exchange for ballots.

Saudi Arabia has sharply increased crude exports from its Red Sea terminals at Yanbu as it diverts shipments away from the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, where flows have been severely disrupted since late February, according to Bloomberg.

The United Arab Emirates is accelerating efforts to establish a new trade corridor linking its eastern seaboard to Saudi Arabia, to bypass the Strait of Hormuz bottleneck.

US President Donald Trump explicitly linked a US security deal to Ukraine’s conceding control of the whole of the Donbas to Russia, he said in an interview with Reuters on March 25.

Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom and Brazilian private holding company NBEPar have signed an agreement to establish a joint venture for the extraction and processing of critical minerals in Brazil, the companies said.

Tech

WhatsApp is effectively dead in Russia and Telegram is "dying right now."

Poland’s government will prepare legislation to introduce a digital services tax, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said, likely heightening tensions with the United States.

Albania is going through major digitalisation, says Dimitris Petrilis of Backbase, which is partnering with Jet Bank to deliver a fully app-based banking experience.

Uber Eats confirmed plans to enter the Israeli market via a message on its mobile app landing page, positioning itself to challenge Wolt's dominance in Israel's food delivery sector.

Children of Russian high-profile security officials or so-called “siloviki” are securing key positions in domestic tech surveillance assets.

Opinion

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) is taking a big gamble. He is pressing Washington for a more aggressive stance in its Iran campaign betting the short term damage cost is the price of leaving the Kingdom as the dominant regional power.

As critical elections approach in Hungary and Armenia this spring, the recent experience of Moldova is increasingly being brought up by politicians, analysts and election observers.

Russia’s oil industry has been handed a short-term reprieve by the war in Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, but the boost from triple-digit crude prices does not alter the sector’s deeper trajectory, Sergey Vakulenko says.

Will GCC be drawn into war and unite against Iran? The foreign ministers of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan met in Riyadh on March 18 to discuss a possible security pact and taking up arms against Iran.

A Russian energy analyst says Iran's "open to all" Hormuz policy would in practice block most Gulf and European shipping, as Tehran keeps the definition of "enemy" vessels deliberately vague.

Data

Obtains $700mn syndicated loan in five tranches.

As global oil markets reel from the fallout of the Iran conflict, strategic reserves have once again come into focus as a key buffer against supply shocks, Statista reports.

Bulgaria has caught up with Greece in terms of purchasing power for the first time, as both countries reached 68% of the European Union average in 2025, Eurostat data showed.

Fitch warns a prolonged Hormuz closure threatens global chemicals supply chains, with force majeure declarations already emerging and material credit risks building across Gulf, European and Asian producers.

Russia began selling physical gold from its central bank reserves for the first time in 25 years, as the government seeks to plug a widening budget deficit driven by sustained military spending.

Features

South Asian rivalry adding new dimension.

Bolstering border defences while stepping up diplomatic engagement.

Troubles are brewing, though.

Iran targeted and hit Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas plant on March 18, the backbone of Qatar's LNG exports and source of a third of the world’s supply of liquid gas. If key components were destroyed the plant could take five years to fix.

EBRD managing director for Ukraine Arvid Tuerkner expects strong long-term investor interest in the country’s reconstruction, if it can ensure stability and sustained reforms.

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

A powerful storm system has hit Dubai with torrential rain, hail and strong winds, compounding aviation disruption at Dubai International Airport as Emirates works to restore full operations by March 29.

Shares in clean energy companies have outpaced oil majors since the outbreak of conflict involving Iran, as investors bet that higher fossil fuel prices will accelerate the shift towards renewables, the Financial Times reports.

The war in Iran has caused a spike in gas flaring across the Middle East is adding to greenhouse gas emissions as energy infrastructure disruptions linked to regional conflict force producers to burn excess fuel.

The facility, located in Bhukhala in Gujarat in Northwest India processes cow dung to generate methane for use in compressed natural gas vehicles.

Moldova said Russian attack on Ukraine led to pollution of Dniester that supplies water to approximately 80% of Moldova’s population and 98% of Chisinau.

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