The World Blog by humble servant.

Massive demonstrations rocked multiple Pakistani cities, including the country’s capital of Islamabad, on Sunday, with thousands taking to the streets to express their support to the deposed Prime Minister Imran Khan. He was ousted by the country’s parliament in a successful no-confidence vote on Saturday. Khan blasted the vote as a foreign-backed regime change operation. “Never have such crowds come out so spontaneously and in such numbers in our history, rejecting the imported govt led by crooks,” Khan said on Twitter, sharing footage of the protests. The protests were spearheaded by Khan’s PTI party, which called upon its members and supporters to take to the streets across the country. Earlier in the day, Khan reiterated his allegations against the US, blaming his ouster on Washington and branding it a “regime change” operation aimed at bringing “into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail.” Ex-Pakistani PM blames ‘foreign conspiracy’READ MORE: Ex-Pakistani PM bla...

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has denounced “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine” after weeks of trying to remain neutral on the conflict. However, he managed to do so while reminding the world that some of Moscow’s fiercest critics have previously invaded his own country. “We do not accept Russia’s invasion of Ukraine because we have suffered from invasions,” Lopez Obrador said on Saturday in a video message. Mexico has at various times been on the receiving end of invasions by the US, France and Spain. Lopez Obrador issued his video statement to be included in Saturday’s ‘Stand Up for Ukraine’ fundraising event, a campaign that organizers claim seeks to raise money for humanitarian relief to Ukrainian refugees. The Mexican president declined Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s invitation to attend the event, but he agreed to release a statement speaking out against the “Russian invasion.” Lopez Obrador had previously resisted international pressure to condemn Mosco...

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has claimed that Washington is racing to fulfill Ukraine’s weapons wish list, ensuring that Kiev has all that it needs to repel Russia and support the US goal of weakening and isolating Moscow. “We are doing everything we can as the United States, working around the clock, to deliver our own weapons and . . . organizing and coordinating the delivery of weapons from many other countries so that Ukraine has what it needs,” Sullivan said on Sunday in an NBC News interview. “Weapons are arriving every day, including today.” Sullivan noted that he and Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had a two-hour telephone call with top Ukrainian defense officials to discuss the weapons systems that Kiev is seeking. The US is working through that list as quickly as possible “to get Ukraine what it needs to strengthen its hand on the battlefield and to strengthen its hand at the bargaining table,” the security advisor said. Asked by NBC hos...

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer is expected to visit Russia on Monday, officials in both Moscow and Vienna have confirmed. The upcoming visit was first reported by Austria's Kronen Zeitung newspaper, which cited government sources saying that the country’s leader was seeking to become a “bridge builder” in an attempt to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine. The visit has been coordinated with the EU leadership, as well as Nehammer’s German counterpart Olaf Scholz. Nehammer’s office confirmed the upcoming visit to TASS, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported that the Austrian leader will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Yes. We confirm [the talks],” Peskov told RIA Novosti. On Saturday, Nehammer visited Kiev, meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as other top officials. During his visit, the Chancellor expressed his support for Ukraine, stating that the EU will continue to ramp-up anti-Russian sanctions “until the war sto...

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has reportedly raised the possibility that mines discovered off his country’s coast were purposely deployed in the Black Sea as a pretext for sending NATO minesweepers to the region amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. “We have doubts as to whether the mines were left intentionally,” the defense minister told members of Turkey’s Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK) in a meeting last week, the Hurriyet Daily News reported on Sunday. “Maybe these mines were left within a plan for NATO minesweepers to enter the Black Sea.” The aim of this type of scheme might be to pressure Ankara into allowing NATO warships to enter the Black Sea through the Turkish Straits, Akar said. He insisted that Ankara will abide by the Montreux Convention, which allows Turkey to regulate maritime traffic through the straits during times of war. We will not let warships into the Black Sea. We will not allow the Black Sea to be drawn into the war. Turkish forces have de...

The Latvian port city of Ventspils may soon encounter difficulty safely storing some 40,000 tons of liquid ammonia, city council chairman Janis Vitolins told LETA news agency on Sunday. The hazardous material is owned by Ventamonjak, the company that runs the liquid ammonia terminal located at the local port. The terminal, which has multiple holding tanks to store ammonia, is the largest facility of its kind in the Baltic Sea region. Ventamonjak is controlled by Uralchem Freight Limited Cyprus, which is owned by Russian billionaire Dmitry Mazepin. The ownership structure makes the terminal subject to the sanctions affecting Mazepin, the official explained. As a result, Ventamonjak’s ability to perform financial transactions is currently restricted. The anti-Russian sanctions have rendered the company unable to pay its contractor, VK Terminal Services, which provides maintenance for the ammonia storage. The contractor will run out of funds by April 22 and will be unable to secure el...

US-based card company Visa will be able to restore the revenue it lost by pulling out of Russia amid Ukraine-related sanctions within a year, the company’s Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu said this week, as cited by the Wall Street Journal. Visa, along with rival Mastercard, suspended ties with Russia last month under pressure from Western governments critical of Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. The move cost the company about 4% of revenues. However, according to Prabhu, Visa will be able to make up for the losses by next year. Visa’s global net revenues soared 10% year-over-year to $24.1 billion in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021. In the first quarter of 2022, revenues climbed 19% over the same period last year to $3.6 billion, while international transaction revenues alone jumped over 50% and global cross-border volumes surged 40%, according to Visa’s fiscal report. This uptick comes largely from the rebound in global travel and the continuing recovery of...

China is expediting efforts to expand its nuclear arsenal as Beijing is seriously concerned about the threat posed by the US, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday. According to the newspaper, the Chinese leadership made a strategic decision to beef up the country’s nuclear deterrence long before the current conflict in Ukraine. However, the latest events in Europe, as well as the increasingly confrontational rhetoric between Beijing and Washington over Taiwan, have prompted an acceleration of the program. The Journal arrived at these conclusions based on information obtained from the customary anonymous sources who “work with various agencies involved in security issues” in China, but none of whom are “directly involved in the setting of nuclear policy.” As further proof of its claims, the report also cites satellite imagery of more than 100 suspected missile silos in one of China’s western regions, where increased activity has been detected. The newspaper surmises that thes...

In his first tweet since losing his as Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan has pointed the finger at unnamed foreign forces that he alleges have meddled in the country’s affairs. The no-confidence vote that ousted him was held early on Sunday. “Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change,” Khan wrote. He added that “it is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy.” A cricket star turned politician, Khan took office in 2018. However, his PTI party effectively lost its majority in the National Assembly in March when seven MPs from its coalition partner decided to join the ranks of the opposition. The rivals accused Khan of economic and political failures. The now ex-PM claimed, however, that the opposition was acting according to a foreign power’s will. Back on Friday, Khan said in an address that he was “ready for a struggle” and would not accept “an impo...

Russia has hiked up the tax on wheat exports to $101.4 per from April 13 to 19, the country’s Ministry of Agriculture announced on Friday. This is the first time Russia has raised its wheat export duty to over $100, media reports. The levy has been on the rise for four weeks in a row after dropping for nine weeks prior to that. The ministry also raised the export tax on barley and corn to $75.4 and $70.6 per ton, respectively. According to Alexander Korbut, the vice president of the Russian Grain Union, Russian grain export duties are likely to grow further. “They rose both on geopolitical risks and on the awry situation with the state of winter crops in the United States. Although the situation seems to be improving now and prices are gradually falling, any radical decline is unlikely [and] we are approaching export prices of $400 per ton. Therefore, it is quite natural that the duty will be significantly higher than the current one,” he told the Interfax news agency. Wheat pric...

Denmark is transferring some 400,000 gasified households to other energy sources in an effort to end its dependence on Russian gas, the country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said in an interview to Berlingske newspaper on Sunday. “We will switch [the households] to central heating or individual heat pumps, where it makes sense. We will ensure that the Danes move away from natural gas,” Frederiksen told the publication. Speaking in Parliament earlier, the prime minister said that the initiative would be officially launched at the end of April, along with other measures aimed at a rapid transition to renewable energy and thus independence from Russian gas. “All this is for the sake of climate and security, but also for the sake of each individual consumer. And most importantly – for the sake of peace and freedom in Europe,” Frederiksen was cited as saying. Because Denmark does not buy gas from Russia directly, but rather acquires it via Germany, it does not show up in the sta...

Russia has increased its reserve fund used for emergency spending by 273.4 billion rubles ($3.52 billion), the government announced on Sunday. “The funds, among other things, will be used to implement measures aimed at ensuring economic stability in the light of external sanctions,” the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers said in a statement, referring to multiple restrictions placed on Russia by the US, most of the EU, and other nations in response to Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine. The government’s reserve fund can be used for unforeseen spending not provided for in the state budget. Money from this fund is allocated to solve socially significant problems. In 2021, the funds were used to tackle the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and for social payments. The government noted that the main source of the fund’s current increase was the additional energy revenue which Russia received in the first quarter of 2022 on record high oil and gas prices. READ MORE: Kremlin se...

The Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) claimed on Sunday that Ukrainian fighters have seized two foreign ships in the Azov Sea port of Mariupol and are holding their crews hostage. DPR forces, backed by Russia, have been fighting with Ukrainians for control of the port since late February. Mariupol is the second largest city in the DPR, which has been recognised as an independent state by Russia, since February. Kiev considers it to be part of its territory. According to DPR military spokesman Eduard Basurin, “a group of retreating Ukrainian nationalists” from the Azov Battalion boarded two foreign ships, the Lady Augusta and the Tsarevna. Basurin said the fighters are firing mortars, grenade launchers, and small arms from the vessels while “holding the crews hostage.” He added that DPR forces and Russian troops are trying to rescue the trapped sailors, and that it is unclear if there are any casualties among the crews. According to tracking website vesselfinder.com, the Lady August...

Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear company, has announced that four of its employees who had been held by the Ukrainian authorities since late February have been freed as part of a prisoner swap and returned to Russia. On Sunday, Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s top human rights official, was the first one to announce the news of the prisoner swap, which took place on Saturday evening. A corporate spokesperson told journalists that Rosatom “confirms [their] return and is grateful to all those who helped free our colleagues.” The representative also expressed hope that “after some rest and recuperation, they will return to their team.” According to Rosatom, its four staff had been delivering cargo to the Rivne Nuclear Power Plant on February 23, and had since been held by Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s attack on the country. Last Friday, Rosatom’s CEO, Alexey Likhachev, described the employees’ detention in Ukraine as “absolute lawlessness,” adding that the four had been delivering ...

Global food prices surged to a historic high last month on grain and edible oil supply woes brought about by the conflict in Ukraine, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Friday. “World food commodity prices made a significant leap in March to reach their highest levels ever, as war in the Black Sea region spread shocks through markets for staple grains and vegetable oils,” the FAO said in a statement. The FAO’s food price index rose by 12.6% to a record 159.3 points in March against February’s high of 141.4 points, “making a giant leap to a new highest level since its inception in 1990.” The index represents a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities. The current surge includes new all-time highs for vegetable oils, cereals, and meats, the agency said, noting that prices of sugar and dairy products “also rose significantly.” Ukraine conflict could spark food riots in poor countries – WTOREAD MORE: Ukraine conflict cou...

Ukraine has officially banned all imports from Russia due to Moscow’s military operation on its soil, Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on Saturday. “Today we officially announce a complete termination of trade in goods with the aggressor state. From now on, no Russian Federation’s products will be able to be imported into the territory of our state,” Svyrydenko wrote on Facebook, as cited by Reuters. She added that the step was taken to ensure that Russia does not use the money from mutual trade to fund the military operation. Russia was one of Ukraine’s key trading partners before Moscow launched the operation to “demilitarize” the neighboring state in late February, with annual imports valued at roughly $6 billion. Although the exchange of goods and services between the two countries has become virtually non-existent over the past six weeks, Kiev had not officially cut trade ties with Moscow until Saturday’s announcement. In her post, Svyrydenko urged other countries t...

JPMorgan Chase says commodities could rise in price by 40% should investors boost their allocation to raw materials at a time of rising inflation. According to Bloomberg, the bank’s strategists said that while allocations appear to be above historical averages on commodities, they are not very overweight. That suggests scope for gains in raw materials, the strategists wrote in an April 6 note seen by the media outlet. “In the current juncture, where the need for inflation hedges is more elevated, it is conceivable to see longer-term commodity allocations eventually rising above 1% of total financial assets globally, surpassing the previous highs,” they said. All else being equal, that “would imply another 30% to 40% upside for commodities from here.” Commodities have been trading at multi-year highs recently as financial sanctions on Russia, a major exporter of commodities, disrupted shipments and worsened the supply shortage. Soaring prices on everything from crude oil to wheat ha...

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said that the bloc will deploy a permanent full-scale military force on the eastern flank to deter Russia. The move comes in response to Moscow’s military campaign against Ukraine. In an interview published by The Telegraph on Saturday, Stoltenberg explained that the US-led military organisation has been focused on “a very fundamental transformation” in order to better reflect the “new reality” in Europe. “We have now asked our military commanders to provide options for what we call a reset, a more longer-term adaptation of NATO,” he said, adding that the decisions on the matter are expected at the bloc’s summit in Madrid, Spain in June. This is part of the reset which we have to make, which is to move from tripwire deterrence to something which is more about deterrence by denial or defense. This is already in process. Stoltenberg said last month that the bloc had 40,000 troops “under direct command,” mostly in Eastern Europe.The group...

The first round of the French presidential election takes place on Sunday, with eleven candidates facing the incumbent Emmanuel Macron. According to opinion polls, the current president and the opposition National Rally party’s leader, Marine Le Pen, will most likely make it to the second round of the vote on April 24. If the data is correct, it would mean a repeat of the 2017 run-off, where Macron scored a landslide victory, with 66% of the ballots cast. Polling stations, in major cities, close at 8pm local time, with the first exit polls expected shortly thereafter. Some experts have warned of low turnout, with younger and low-income voters likely to abstain. According to some analysts, until recently, Macron was comfortably in the lead; however, a combination of several factors, including his plan to increase the retirement age, rising inflation, and his late official entry into the race, has somewhat dampened popular support. Macron names his priority if re-elected French Pre...

Ukraine-related Western sanctions are pushing BRICS countries into closer economic cooperation at an accelerated pace, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Saturday during the first meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors of the BRICS countries, chaired by China. According to the finance minister, the “current crisis is man-made,” and the BRICS member states – Russia, Brazil, India, China, and South Africa – “have all the necessary tools to mitigate its consequences for their respective economies and the global economy on a broader scale.” Siluanov says the current US dollar-based international financial system should be reformed to ensure “independence and continuity of economic processes.” “The situation in the global economy has deteriorated significantly as a result of the sanctions. Bans on settlements, disruption of production and supply chains, export controls and import bans – all of these restrictions hit the global economy.” The most sanctioned...

Russia's foreign currency reserves increased by $2.1 billion, or 0.3%, in the week ending April 1, the Bank of Russia announced on Friday. The country's forex holdings amounted to $606.5 billion, data published on the website of the regulator shows. The central bank regularly publishes updates on its reserves with a one-week lag. International reserves consist of foreign-currency funds, special drawing rights with the IMF and monetary gold. Russia's reserves declined after the launch of the military operation in Ukraine on February 24. As of February 18, they amounted to $643.2 billion, while by March 25 they had dropped to $604.4 billion. This happened as the US, most of the EU, the UK and Japan imposed sanctions on the country's central bank and other major financial institutions. Sanctions froze roughly half of Russia's reserves held abroad and effectively blocked its ability to conduct international transactions in US dollars and euros. The Bank of Russia id...