A near-inevitable global recession sparked by a lengthening war in Europe’s frozen east; an energy crisis coupled with soaring inflation; Covid-19 finally running rampant in China – predictions for 2023 are grim. Still, there are reasons to be hopeful. That same energy crisis has spurred an unprecedented demand for renewables, which are expected to boom, while in Brazil, a new president has sworn to protect the Amazon. Repressive regimes, meanwhile, will be nervously looking at Iran, where hardline clerics are locked in a struggle with a formidable pro-democracy uprising that…
Tag: Israel
At the DealBook Summit, Untangling the Now — and the Future
This article is part of our special section on the DealBook Summit that included business and policy leaders from around the world. Last week at the DealBook Summit, I interviewed some of the world’s most influential leaders, among them Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary of the United States; President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine; Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Meta; and Andy Jassy, the chief executive of Amazon. One common theme came up in just about every conversation. It was that every decision — big and small — is ultimately a…
Secret British ‘black propaganda’ campaign targeted cold war enemies
The British government ran a secret “black propaganda” campaign for decades, targeting Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia with leaflets and reports from fake sources aimed at destabilising cold war enemies by encouraging racial tensions, sowing chaos, inciting violence and reinforcing anti-communist ideas, newly declassified documents have revealed. The effort, run from the mid-1950s through to the late 70s by a unit in London that was part of the Foreign Office, was focused on cold war enemies such as the Soviet Union and China, leftwing liberation groups and…
Your Friday Evening Briefing
(Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Here’s the sign-up.) Good evening. Here’s the latest at the end of Friday. 1. Sanctions hit President Vladimir Putin’s former wife and his rumored girlfriend. Britain added Putin’s former wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, and the woman long considered to be his mistress, Alina Kabaeva, to its sanctions list as the West deepened its efforts to combat Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A former K.G.B. operative, Putin has kept his personal life shrouded in secrecy, but the sanctions are lifting that veil. On the battlefields,…
Covid live news: Chinese city puts 1.3 million in strict lockdown over three asymptomatic cases
South Korea has just released its daily Covid report. The Asian nation recorded another 3,024 confirmed coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, a figure much lower than recent weeks. A further 51 deaths were also recorded with 973 people in critical condition, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 86.2 % of the eligible population have received at least one Covid vaccine dose and 83.1 % have received at least two. 대한민국 질병관리청 (@KoreaDCA) 🔊코로나19 국내 현황(1.4.) 일 1차접종 39,839명(누적 1차접종 44,239,358명/86.2%)일 2차접종…