Author: Roosevelt Gonzales

Establishing a transport corridor through the use of force would provoke a strong response, said James O’Brien, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, as he addressed the issue of the Zangezur corridor, a project proposed by Azerbaijan, Trend reports. This route aims to create a transportation link between Azerbaijan’s mainland and its exclave, Nakhchivan, by traversing Armenian territory. This corridor emerged as part of the trilateral agreement following the 2020 second Karabakh war. “Any corridor should only be created with Armenia’s consent, leading to a transit boom for regional countries and global markets as access…

Brussel, Frankfurt (16/11 – 23) A levying of embargoes and export bans, the imposition of sanctions, erection of fearsome “license” (= restriction) protocol: there’s nothing new about this back-and-forth in world trade, in the eternal jousting for advantage among markets and nations. The clever Chinese imagined they had the world tea market all locked up until an earnest Scottish botanist carrying the telling name of “Robert Fortune” snuck into the Middle Kingdom to observe their agriculture, steal tea plants, and pick up tricks of tea processing. The Chinese global tea monopoly was busted wide open. The fortunate Mr. Fortune was…

The mystery surrounding the “non-human” mummified which were discovered in Peru deepened after an analyst said that 30 per cent of its DNA when analysed did not match humans but an “unknown species”.UFO enthusiast Jose Jaime Maussan, who was part of the team of scientists who performed a DNA analysis of the remains, said that they discovered 30 per cent of its genetic material is “not from any known species”.Mexican researchers, who stood beside him as he testified before the Congress, also said that the figures were “authentic”, and comprised of only a single skeleton, as reported by UK’s Daily…

The worsening bottlenecks at the drought-stricken Panama Canal are pushing at least one US diesel shipper to sail around the tip of South America en route to Chile for the first time since 2020. The vessel Green Sky is hauling ultra-low sulfur diesel loaded at Citgo Petroleum Corp’s Clifton Ridge terminal in Louisiana to Valparaiso, Chile, according to Bloomberg vessel tracking and Kpler. Rather than traversing through Panama, the vessel is headed down the eastern coast of South America toward the Strait of Magellan, the first such voyage for a cargo of Gulf Coast diesel since 2020, according to Kpler.…

Copenhagen (13/11 – 37.5) When Ranil Wickremesinghe took over as Sri Lanka’s president in July after a popular uprising ousted his predecessor, the South Asian island nation was engulfed in its worst economic meltdown in 75 years. Since then, President Wickremesinghe has managed to a keep a lid on mass protests, improve supplies of essentials and on Monday, secured a nearly $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that opens the door to restructuring about $58 billion of debt and receive funding from other lenders. He has done that despite a deeply unpopular government, his own party commanding just one…

The Canadian economy unexpectedly contracted at an annualized rate of 1.1% in the third quarter, data showed on Thursday, avoiding a recession but showing growth stumbling ahead of next week’s interest-rate decision. The third-quarter reading came in below the 0.2% gross domestic product (GDP) increase forecast by analysts in a Reuters poll, and below the Bank of Canada’s (BoC) 0.8% projected gain. The economy avoided slipping into a technical recession – defined as two consecutive quarter-on-quarter contractions – because second-quarter GDP data was revised up to a 1.4% gain from an initial report of a 0.2% decline, Statistics Canada said.…

U.S. officials proposed a $31 million recovery plan for Canada lynx on Friday in a bid to help the snow-dependent wildcat species that scientists say could be wiped out in parts of the contiguous U.S. by the end of the century. The proposal marks a sharp turnaround from five years ago, when officials in Donald Trump’s presidency said lynx had recovered and no longer needed protection after their numbers had rebounded in some areas. President Joseph Biden’s administration in 2021 reached a legal settlement with environmental groups to retain threatened species protections for lynx that were first imposed in 2000.…

Frankfurt (18/12 – 14) That there are remarkable advantages in being ignored is not generally recognized. Central Asian countries, historically under the thumb of Moscow, all through the 70+ years of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, were more or less cut off from the outside world. There was little trade or other exchange. The USSR was in fact a grab-bag of ethnicities, religions and languages, controlled with an iron fist by Stalin and afterwards with unbroken dominance through subsequent regimes. Under Soviet management, Central Asia had stayed poor and ignored; it had not developed any hydrocarbon resources to lure…

This demonstration plant’s construction is considered to be the next major step in Anson’s plan to expedite the development of the Green River project. The company also noted that it secured the relevant approvals for the demo site and has already started the groundwork. The site will begin production next January. This follows the detailed geotechnical engineering study of the project, which began in May 2023. The plant is being built on the company’s previously acquired industrial-use land. Source : MT

Brussels (08/11 – 50) On March 20, the IMF approved a $3 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF) to support Sri Lanka amid its economic crisis. The approval is expected to pave the way for other financial institutions to extend support to the bankrupt South Asian country. IMF program was made possible largely due to the untiring efforts of the President Ranil Wickremesinghe. The IMF links financial assistance to a country to policy reform, a conditionality that usually imposes political as well as economic changes in the recipient nation. The logic behind IMF conditionality is multifold. It is supposed to prevent moral hazard…