World

Indian workers shore up wartime economies of Russia, Ukraine
26Feb mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia, World

Indian workers shore up wartime economies of Russia, Ukraine

Russia and Ukraine increasingly rely on immigrant workers, particularly from Global South countries such as India, to fill the holes in their labor forces left by troop deployments. Russia issued about 240,000 work permits to foreigners requiring visas last year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reports, up 150% from 2021, before Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. India was the second-largest source of workers behind China with 56,000 permits issued, up tenfold from 2021. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka each accounted for fewer than 10,000 permits, but their numbers swelled by roughly 400 times and nearly seven times, respectively, from 2021. Russia and India agreed in December to simplify procedures for temporary workers. Moscow plans to accept more than ...
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Xi, Merz seek to build on economic ties amid fallout from US tariffs
25Feb mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
China, USA, World

Xi, Merz seek to build on economic ties amid fallout from US tariffs

Chinese President Xi Jinping and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have expressed their desire to deepen economic ties between their countries during the German leader’s inaugural visit to Beijing, China’s state broadcaster reports. During a meeting with Merz, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday on a visit focused on resetting trade relations and deepening cooperation, Xi told the German leader their two countries should be “reliable partners that support each ⁠other” and be “defenders of free trade”, CCTV reported. China supported Europe’s self-reliance, Xi said, adding ⁠that China hoped Europe would ⁠work with China in the same direction and ⁠uphold their strategic partnership. CCTV reported that Xi and Merz also discussed ⁠Ukraine amid concerns in Berlin and elsewhere in Europ...
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Why China’s economy remains stable, resilient amid global uncertainty
23Feb mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
Asia, China, World

Why China’s economy remains stable, resilient amid global uncertainty

China will hold its annual Two Sessions in early March. Ahead of this year's key political meetings, CGTN presents a special series, China Agenda, offering multi-angle insights into China's whole-process people's democracy, its socio-economic achievements, and the development vision outlined in the 15th Five-Year Plan. As China prepares for its annual Two Sessions, one question is drawing increasing global attention: How resilient is the world's second-largest economy at a time when the international economic order is undergoing profound changes? China reported 5 percent year-on-year GDP growth in 2025, with total output reaching 140.19 trillion yuan (about $20.13 trillion). Foreign trade expanded to 45.47 trillion yuan, marking the ninth consecutive year of growth. In a worl...
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From blackouts to food shortages: How US blockade is crippling life in Cuba
9Feb mmBy Michael SmithNo Comments
USA, World

From blackouts to food shortages: How US blockade is crippling life in Cuba

A US oil blockade is causing a severe energy crisis in Cuba, as the government has been forced to ration fuel and cut electricity for many hours a day, paralysing life in the communist-ruled island nation of 11 million. Bus stops are empty, and families are turning to wood and coal for cooking, living through near-constant power outages amid an economic crisis worsened by the Trump administration’s steps in recent weeks. President Miguel Diaz-Canel has imposed harsh emergency restrictions – from reduced office hours to fuel sales – in the backdrop of looming threats of regime change from the White House. The Caribbean region has been on edge since the US forces abducted Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro last month and upped the pressure to isolate Havana and strangle its e...
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U.S. Intensifies Efforts to Track Iran’s Overseas Financial Flows
9Feb mmBy Michael SmithNo Comments
USA, World

U.S. Intensifies Efforts to Track Iran’s Overseas Financial Flows

The U.S. Treasury Department has announced that it has intensified operations to identify and track financial flows associated with Iran’s assets being transferred abroad. In a statement released on Sunday, February 8, the department said the Iranian government has been transferring part of its financial resources outside the country in an effort to counter the effects of inflation and circumvent economic pressure. The announcement comes as the atmosphere surrounding negotiations between Tehran and Washington has been assessed as positive, with both sides preparing for a new round of talks. On the same day, Abdolrahim Mousavi, Chief of Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, stressed that despite Tehran’s “full defensive readiness,” Iran does not intend to initiate a regional war. He w...
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India-US trade deal poses serious threat to economy, sovereignty: CPI(M)
8Feb mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
Asia, USA, World

India-US trade deal poses serious threat to economy, sovereignty: CPI(M)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday claimed that India has made “sweeping concessions” to the US in the interim trade agreement between the two nations, posing a “serious threat to our economy, agriculture, and national sovereignty”. In a statement, the Left party said the Narendra Modi Government should not go ahead with the deal, and it should be presented before Parliament. India and the US announced on Saturday that they have reached a framework for an interim trade agreement, under which both sides will reduce import duties on a number of goods to boost the two-way trade. “As details of the Indo-US trade deal slowly emerge, it is becoming evident that the BJP-led Union Government has made sweeping concessions to the United States in the so-called ‘interim deal’...
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How Trump Is Debasing the Dollar and Eroding U.S. Economic Dominance
4Feb mmBy Joe RodriguezNo Comments
USA, World

How Trump Is Debasing the Dollar and Eroding U.S. Economic Dominance

The President’s coercive policies, including his latest threats against Greenland, are prompting some foreign investors to think twice about parking their money with Uncle Sam. t’s been a couple of weeks since Donald Trump and his cohort tried to bully the U.S.’s European allies into submission over Greenland, but the reverberations are still being felt. “There was a real sense that we were witnessing a moment of rupture,” Eswar Prasad, an economist at Cornell University and the Brookings Institution, who was attending the annual World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, when Trump flew in, recounted to me. “One thing that was clear to Europeans was that they can no longer trust the U.S. as a reliable ally on military security, economic security, or any other major matter.”...
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One year after DeepSeek, Chinese AI firms from Alibaba to Moonshot race to release new models
28Jan mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
Asia, China, World

One year after DeepSeek, Chinese AI firms from Alibaba to Moonshot race to release new models

Chinese companies are accelerating the rollout of new artificial intelligence models as competition with U.S.-based rivals OpenAI, Anthropic and Google intensifies. Just over a year ago, China-made DeepSeek rocked global markets with the release of an AI chatbot that undercut OpenAI’s ChatGPT on usage fees and production costs, raising questions about the efficacy of U.S. tech restrictions on China. On Tuesday, Beijing-based startup Moonshot AI revealed Kimi K2.5, which claimed to have video-generation and agentic capabilities that outperformed all three of the leading U.S. AI models. Agentic AI broadly refers to AI systems capable of carrying out tasks on behalf of people. The ultimate goal is to have sophisticated agents that work autonomously with minimal user interaction. ...
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China’s ISSB-aligned reporting rules ‘go beyond many global standards’, say experts
26Jan mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
China, World

China’s ISSB-aligned reporting rules ‘go beyond many global standards’, say experts

China has finalised its first national climate disclosure standard, which now ties corporate reporting to national targets. The finalised rules are broadly aligned with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)’s rules and incorporate double materiality, requiring companies to identify the impact of their operations on the climate, beyond how climate risks affect them financially. “It goes beyond many global standards in terms of its rigour,” said Christoph Nedopil Wang, an expert on Chinese green finance policies and director of Brisbane-based Griffith Asia Institute. The new rules are “very ambitious” for mandating a double materiality lens, on top of disclosures of direct scope 1 emission and supply chain emissions – or scope 2 and 3 emissions, he added. ...
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House Seeks Say Over AI Chip Sales After Nvidia’s China Win
22Jan mmBy Brian ThompsonNo Comments
Asia, China, World

House Seeks Say Over AI Chip Sales After Nvidia’s China Win

Congress is one step closer to gaining the authority to review artificial intelligence chip sales to China, a move likely to open a rift with the Trump administration over plans to let Nvidia Corp. sell its powerful H200 processors to the world’s second-largest economy. A House committee focused on foreign affairs approved bipartisan legislation Wednesday that calls for arms-sale style congressional oversight of advanced AI chip exports. Beyond oversight, the text endorsed by the panel’s Republicans and Democrats would outright ban sales of Nvidia’s more advanced Blackwell chips to China for at least two years, codifying existing export controls into law. The bill marks a response to President Donald Trump’s decision last month to ease longstanding export controls on China, a mo...
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