US slaps sanctions on Russia for election interference and cyber hacks April 16, 2021 The US last night slapped sanctions on Russia in response to “harmful foreign activities” including interference in 2020’s Presidential election. The White House has targeted the economic punishments against a combination of officials and companies over accusations of cyber attacks and other destabilising activities. President Joe Biden said that the US had stopped short of [...]
Citigroup to exit 13 consumer markets despite tripling quarterly profit April 15, 2021 Citigroup has started the year with a bang, tripling its profit in the first quarter after releasing $3.85bn in reserves but announced plans to exit a handful of its consumer markets. The investment bank reported quarterly net income of $7.9bn, up from income of £2.5bn in the first quarter of 2020. Revenues slipped seven per [...]
Russian rouble tumbles as threat of US sanctions resurfaces April 15, 2021 The Russian rouble fell two per cent against the dollar on Thursday, giving up gains made earlier this week as the threat of US sanctions on Moscow reared its head again. The US may announce sanctions on Russia as soon as today for alleged interference in its elections and malicious cyber activity targeting several individuals [...]
Will ESG turn Bitcoin into a digital ‘stranded asset’ or monetary MySpace? (Part II) April 13, 2021 In this second instalment of a two-part piece, Ben Ashby, Derek Usher and Gerard Fox explain why environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors will undermine Bitcoin’s eye-catching rise, here focusing on the ‘S’ and ‘G’. We at Good Governance Capital (GGC) are enormously enthusiastic and supportive of innovation and competition in finance. As former mainstream [...]
Fighting Russian and Chinese disinformation requires a cohesive strategy from Western governments April 8, 2021 Given the world of the internet and multiple platforms, there is undoubtedly more content out there than at any other time in the history of man. Unfortunately, and predictably, along with this news explosion, the very unhealthy scourge of state-sponsored disinformation–with the West’s authoritarian foes trying to take advantage of this editorially unregulated Wild West [...]
Russia’s Sputnik news agency halts operations in Britain April 2, 2021 Russian news agency Sputnik will halt operations in Britain and move its English language service to Moscow and Washington, the media group that launched it in 2014 said on Friday, at a time when Russian-British relations have hit a low point. Rossiya Segodnya said the move was part of a plan to reorganize its international [...]
Georgia was the post-Soviet beacon of hope for democracy but political turmoil could unravel it all April 1, 2021 Georgia, for so long a beacon of hope for democracy and the rule of law in the post-Soviet world, is now once more mired in a political crisis. It is a tragedy for Georgia, where polling by the Washington-based National Democratic Institute (NDI) shows that the overwhelming majority of people want their country to be [...]
Covid-19: France shuts schools as it enters third national lockdown March 31, 2021 France will shut schools for at least three weeks and extend tough lockdown measures to the entire country in a bid to combat a third wave of coronavirus sweeping across Europe. President Emmanuel Macron said he was widening restrictions that were already in place in Paris, swathes of the north and parts of the south [...]
Pfizer vaccine ‘100 per cent effective’ in children as young as 12 March 31, 2021 The Pfizer/Biontech Covid vaccine is safe and 100 per cent effective in children as young as 12, the company has announced. The two pharmaceutical giants carried out trials of the vaccine on 2,260 children aged between 12 and 15 in the US. Preliminary data showed there were no cases of coronavirus among fully vaccinated adolescents [...]
UK tells G7 that it’s time to ‘get tough with China’ on trade March 31, 2021 The UK’s global partners need to “get tough with China” on its unfair trading practices, according to international trade secretary Liz Truss. Truss has called for the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to be reformed and for China to stop designating as a developing country within the body, which means it benefits from looser rules on [...]