Author: staff
The impact is already showing. The FAO Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international food commodity prices, rose for a third consecutive month in April, driven by high energy costs and disruptions linked to the Middle East conflict. The shock will unfold in stages, the agency said: energy, then fertilizer, then seeds, then lower yields, then commodity prices and finally food inflation reaching shoppers. Poorer countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America — where many people already struggle to afford enough food — are most exposed because they traditionally buy nitrogen fertilizer from the Middle East. The warning lands…
In a new attempt to put the West under economic pressure, Iran is floating the idea of imposing “access fees” on undersea internet cables crossing the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could further strain global trade following the passage’s blockage. The plan was first laid out by Iran’s news agency Tasnim, which is linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Questions have arisen over who exactly would have to pay such tariffs, and which kinds of services would be targeted. From a logistical point of view, firms operating cables under the Strait would be forced to pay an…
By Euronews Persian Published on 20/05/2026 – 13:02 GMT+2•Updated 13:18 Iran’s government said on Tuesday it could not say when the country’s 82-day internet blackout would end, as new data showed the shutdown has cost the economy more than $1 billion and a tiered access system has emerged that critics say gives internet to officials and professionals while cutting off ordinary citizens. Government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani, responding to questions about when international internet access would be restored, said the administration of President Masoud Pezeshkian opposed restrictions on internet use but could not provide a timeline. “With the mandate the president has…
By Una Hajdari with AP Published on 20/05/2026 – 12:45 GMT+2•Updated 13:27 The United Nations has lowered its forecast for global economic growth and raised inflation projections for this year, responding to the Middle East crisis and rising oil prices. UN economists said global GDP growth is now forecast at 2.5% for 2026, down from 2.7% in January, and could fall to just 2.1% “in a more adverse scenario”. That would be one of the weakest growth rates this century, outside of the COVID-19 pandemic and the global financial crisis of 2008, said Shantanu Mukherjee, director of economic analysis in the UN Department…
Google used its annual developer conference on Tuesday to outline an aggressive new vision for artificial intelligence, unveiling a wave of products and upgrades designed to make Gemini the centre of its ecosystem. At the company’s I/O 2026 event in California, CEO Sundar Pichai described the company’s next era as “agentic,” as the company shifts towards an AI system capable of completing autonomous tasks. To Pichai, the agentic era also includes AI agents, which will be integrated into many of the company’s products, including Google Search and Gemini, Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot. “Ten years since we pivoted the company…
A new outbreak of the deadly disease began in May in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with a small number of cases spreading to neighboring Uganda. On Sunday, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency. More than 130 people had died from the latest outbreak by Tuesday, according to the WHO’s director general. The United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been working to evacuate American doctors exposed to the disease while treating patients in the DRC and Uganda. The Czech health ministry said in Wednesday’s statement that “other American healthcare workers…
Swiss Defence Minister Martin Pfister said on Monday in Berlin that “Switzerland wants and is ready to take responsibility for its own security, but also to meet the expectations of other European countries that Switzerland, too, should contribute to the security of our continent. We want to live up to this aspiration as a reliable partner.” He was speaking at a meeting of the DACH countries, a region of shared economic and cultural heritage that comprises of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Countries that in the past spent relatively little on their defence have changed course in recent years following the…
Published on 20/05/2026 – 11:42 GMT+2•Updated 11:49 Reindustrialisation is no longer just a statement of intent. Three out of four large European and US companies already have a strategy under way. According to the latest data collected in the report “The return of industry: reindustrialisation strategies in Europe and the United States (source in Spanish)”, produced by the Capgemini Research Institute, 73% of European and US companies already have at least one such plan in operation, compared with 59% in 2024. The figure is even higher in Spain, where 76% of companies have a reindustrialisation strategy up and running. However,…
Published on 20/05/2026 – 11:32 GMT+2•Updated 11:46 Long before he became one of the world’s best-known Latin American artists, Fernando Botero sold his first work for two packs of cigarettes. More than seven decades later, and almost three years after his death, that youthful watercolour is returning to the art market at an auction in Bogotá. The piece, entitled ‘La Plegaria’ and executed in 1949, is regarded as the first work Botero sold in his career and features in an auction organised by Bogotá Auctions on 21 May, which will also offer more than 120 works of modern and contemporary…
Following the detection of the drone in Lithuania, Vilnius International Airport was closed and officials in the Ignalina District Municipality instructed children in schools to take shelter. Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginienė was set to meet her National Security Commission on Wednesday to discuss drone incursions; a government spokesperson told LRT that she had been taken to a shelter in response to the air alert. In a letter obtained by POLITICO, a group of 15 Baltic MEPs from across the political spectrum on Wednesday asked Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas to take action.…