Europe has a strange new export. It is not wine. It is not cars. It is not cheese. It is interest income. After more than three years of sanctions, about €210 billion in Russian central bank assets remain immobilized inside the EU, with a very large share sitting at Euroclear in Belgium. And now the… Read More »The Frozen Fortune and the Courtroom Thaw

Northern Japan got another hard shake on Friday, just days after an even stronger quake in the same broad region. Japan’s weather agency said the earthquake struck off the Pacific coast of Aomori prefecture at 11:44 a.m. local time. The agency first put the quake… Read More »A Shallow Quake, a Small Tsunami, and a Very Fast Advisory

Kupiansk is not a famous name in most living rooms. It is not a capital. It is not a postcard city. Yet it keeps showing up in the story because it sits where routes and rivers argue with each other. This week, Ukraine says it… Read More »Kupiansk, Again: The Town That Refuses to Stay Quiet

María Corina Machado walked into Oslo and said the quiet part out loud. Nicolás Maduro will leave power, she said, “whether negotiated or not.” She also said she is focused on a peaceful transition. Those two lines sit together like mismatched shoes. One sounds like… Read More »Oslo, A Balcony, and a Promise Venezuela Has Heard Before

News from Iran has a familiar shape. It starts with a small public moment. A gathering. A speech. A memorial. Then it ends with men in plain clothes and a woman pushed into custody. This time, the name is Narges Mohammadi. She is 53. She… Read More »When a Nobel Laureate Gets Taken Again

The Border Gets Loud Again Once again, the Thai-Cambodian border is not acting like a border. It is acting like a megaphone. Artillery thumps. Rockets crack. Air strikes roar. And a long, thin corridor of villages has to empty out, again, like someone pulled a… Read More »Thai-Cambodian Border

The Dutch historian Rutger Bregman is in a blunt mood.In his Reith Lectures on “Moral Revolution”, he talks about rot at the top, cowardice in the middle, and apathy at the bottom. Elite institutions look busy. Yet many people feel that nothing truly moral changes.… Read More »Moral Revolutions In An Age Of Shrugs

Rachel Reeves did not increase the basic or higher rate of income tax in her Budget. The 20%, 40% and 45% rates are still there, just as before. And yet, the Budget is still very likely to push up your tax bill before this parliament… Read More »The UK’s “Stealth Tax”: How Frozen Income Tax Thresholds Raise Your Bill Anyway

Rachel Reeves has delivered another tax-raising Budget and has been unusually clear about the headline. Taxes are going up and many people will feel it. At the same time, she talks about “ordinary people” and “broadest shoulders”, about frozen rail fares and cheaper fuel, and… Read More »Rachel Reeves’ Tax-Raising Budget And The Reality Behind The Promises

Talks to let UK companies plug into the European Union’s huge new defense loan scheme have fallen apart after a dispute over money. The deal would have opened the door for British arms makers to tap into a €150 billion (about $170 billion) pool of… Read More »UK–EU Defense Loan Talks Collapse: Why It Matters Far Beyond Europe