A former ECB chief says the lack of access to cheap energy from Russia has undermined the bloc’s competitive advantage
The global economic competitiveness of the European Union has been substantially eroded due to the loss of cheap energy from Russia, former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said on Monday.
A wide-ranging report presented by Draghi indicated that reducing energy prices, raising competitiveness, and strengthening defense investment are among the top priorities for the bloc’s policymakers.
According to the politician, who served as Italy’s prime minister in 2021-2022, member states have been struggling to cope with higher energy prices and can no longer rely on open foreign markets.
“Europe has abruptly lost its most important supplier of energy, Russia,” Draghi said, emphasising that geopolitical stability was waning, while the region’s “dependencies have turned out to be vulnerabilities.”
The politician and economist acknowledged that energy prices have considerably fallen from their peaks, but stressed that EU companies are still dealing with electricity prices that are 150% higher than those in the US, while paying nearly 350% more for natural gas....more below
https://www.rt.com/business/603712-draghi-eu-energy-prices-warning/
The overthrow of PM Sheikh Hasina in 2024 was funded by USAID and Clinton family money, Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury told RT
The unwillingness of Bangladesh to condemn Russia over the Ukraine conflict was one of the reasons the US wanted to oust Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former cabinet minister and chief negotiator Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has said in an interview with RT.
Hasina, who led Bangladesh for 15 years, fled the country in August 2024, following weeks of violent student-led protests which claimed 700 lives, according to some estimates.
Chowdhury, who served as the country’s shipping minister, was at the heart of negotiations between the authorities in Dhaka and demonstrators during the crisis. The country has been led by an interim government since then, which pledged to hold an election in 2026.
Chowdhury told RT in an exclusive interview to be aired on Monday that the uprising was instigated by NGOs linked to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the ...
The fighting in southern Lebanon marks the collapse of a fragile truce – and could redraw the region’s balance of power
On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of coordinated strikes on Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. According to Israeli sources, the strikes targeted weapons depots, command centers, and communication systems used by militants to coordinate their activities along the border area.
Before the operation began, the IDF issued warnings urging residents of several towns to leave areas that could come under fire. The Israeli military emphasized that its actions were aimed solely at military targets but did not rule out the possibility of expanding the operation if provocations from Hezbollah continued.
West Jerusalem accuses Hezbollah of violating ceasefire terms and attempting to rebuild its military capabilities. Just days earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Hezbollah was taking steps to regroup and ...
A recent report has revealed that Paramount Global, an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, maintains an internal blacklist of entertainment figures it labels “anti-Semitic,” applying the term to any artist who supports Palestine or denounces Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Variety magazine reported on Tuesday that Paramount’s new CEO, David Ellison, has moved to sever ties with all pro-Palestine or anti-Israel movements.
To that end, the company has dismissed executives critical of Israel and refuses to collaborate with any artist or public figure who views the occupying regime’s actions in Gaza as genocidal.
In a statement released on Friday, Paramount said it “disagreed with recent efforts to boycott Israeli filmmakers,” claiming that “silencing individual creative artists does not promote better understanding or advance the cause of peace.”
The statement came after Film Workers for Palestine, supported by over 4,000 international ...
