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The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine | The Economist - 1 views

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  • The immediate global implications will be higher inflation, lower growth and some disruption to financial markets as deeper sanctions take hold.
  • The longer-term fallout will be a further debilitation of the system of globalised supply chains and integrated financial markets that has dominated the world economy since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
  • Russia is one of the world’s largest oil producers and a key supplier of industrial metals such as nickel, aluminium and palladium.
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  • Russia and Ukraine are major wheat exporters, while Russia and Belarus (a Russian proxy) are big in potash, an input into fertilisers.
  • the price of Brent oil breached $100 per barrel on the morning of February 24th and European gas prices rose by 30%.
  • Their delivery might be disrupted if physical infrastructure such as pipelines or Black Sea ports are destroyed. Alternatively, deeper sanctions on Russia’s commodity complex could prevent Western customers from buying from it.
  • Sanctions after the invasion of Crimea did not prevent BP, ExxonMobil or Shell from investing in Russia, while American penalties on Rusal, a Russian metals firm, in 2018 were short-lived.
  • Russia may retaliate by deliberately creating bottlenecks that raise prices. America may lean on Saudi Arabia to increase oil production and prod its domestic shale firms to ramp up output.
  • America is thus likely to put much tougher Huawei-style sanctions on Russian tech firms, limiting their access to cutting-edge semiconductors and software, and also blacklist Russia’s largest two banks, Sberbank and VTB, or seek to cut Russia off from the SWIFT messaging system that is used for cross-border bank transfers.
  • The tech measures will act as a drag on Russia’s growth over time and annoy its consumers.
  • The banking restrictions will bite immediately, causing a funding crunch and impeding financial flows in and out of the country.
  • Russia will turn to China for its financial needs. Already trade between the two countries has been insulated from Western sanctions, with only 33% of payments from China to Russia now taking place in dollars, down from 97% in 2014.
  • What does all this mean for the global economy? Russia faces a serious but not fatal economic shock as its financial system is isolated. For the global economy the prospect is of higher inflation as natural-resource prices rise, intensifying the dilemma that central banks face, and a possible muting of corporate investment as jittery markets dampen confidence.
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Russia's Looming Economic Collapse - The Atlantic - 0 views

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  • The first battlefield is geographic
  • The war in Ukraine is being fought on two battlefields
  • The second battlefield is made up not of physical particles, but rather of relationships—contracts and promises between nations, banks, companies, and individuals. This is the economic arena.
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  • the United States and several major European countries have declared a series of financial penalties and sanctions against Russia that are without modern precedent for a major economy. These policies are triggering a financial catastrophe in Russia.
  • Only 12 countries in the world have more total exports. Russia trades oil, gas, and coal to much of Europe and wheat to the Middle East and Africa.
  • The sanctions imposed so far amount to a kind of siege of a country that depends on access to global markets.
  • The country is sealed off—from Western trade, Western travel, and (apart from energy exports) most Western business.
  • Tajikistan, a small Central Asian country north of Afghanistan, relies on remittances from Russia for more than 20 percent of its GDP. That means if workers in Russia stop sending money to their families in Tajikistan, that country’s economy could nose-dive into a depression.
  • Economic crises can spark political revolutions, and Tajikistan shares a border with China’s westernmost province, Xinjiang. Russia’s crisis could, then, become a Central Asian economic crisis, which could become a Chinese political problem. What happens in Russia will not stay in Russia.
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North Korea's largest nuclear test draws condemnation, threat of more sanctions | Reuters - 0 views

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  • North Korea conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Friday and said it had mastered the ability to mount a warhead on a ballistic missile, ratcheting up a threat that its rivals and the United Nations have been powerless to contain.
  • The blast, on the 68th anniversary of North Korea's founding, was more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, according to some estimates. It was condemned by the United States, which said it would work with partners to impose new sanctions on North Korea, and by China, Pyongyang's main ally.
  • The United Nations Security Council would discuss the test and whether the 15-member body should punish the reclusive state by imposing further sanctions at a closed-door meeting on Friday requested by the United States, Japan and South Korea, diplomats said.
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  • The test was a "grave threat to regional security and to international peace and stability," Obama said in a statement, adding North Korea should face consequences for its "unlawful and dangerous actions."
  • China said it was resolutely opposed to the test and urged Pyongyang to stop taking any actions that would worsen the situation. It said it would lodge a protest with the North Korean embassy in Beijing.
  • There were further robust condemnations from Russia, the European Union, NATO, Germany and Britain.
  • North Korea, which labels the South and the United States as its main enemies, said its "scientists and technicians carried out a nuclear explosion test for the judgment of the power of a nuclear warhead," according to its official KCNA news agency.It said the test proved North Korea was capable of mounting a nuclear warhead on a medium-range ballistic missile, which it last tested on Monday when Obama and other world leaders were gathered in China for a G20 summit.
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Trump Open to Shift on Russia Sanctions, 'One China' Policy - WSJ - 0 views

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  • Trump Open to Shift on Russia Sanctions, ‘One China’ Policy
  • President-elect Donald Trump suggested he would be open to lifting sanctions on Russia and wasn’t committed to a longstanding agreement with China over Taiwan
  • n an hourlong interview, Mr. Trump said that, “at least for a period of time,”
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  • “If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody’s doing some really great things?” he said.
  • But Mr. Trump’s diplomatic efforts will have to compete with those in Congress, including many Republicans, who want to see the administration take a tough line with Russia after U.S. intelligence concluded that the government of Mr. Putin sought to influence the November presidential election with a campaign of cyberhacking.
  • Asked if he supported the One China policy on Taiwan, Mr. Trump said: “Everything is under negotiation including One China.”
  • . Any suggestion in the past that the U.S. may change its stance has been met with alarm in Beijing.
  • It added, “we urge relevant parties in the U.S. to fully recognize the high sensitivity of the Taiwan question, approach Taiwan-related issues with prudence and honor the commitment made by all previous U.S. administrations.”
  • “We sold them $2 billion of military equipment last year. We can sell them $2 billion of the latest and greatest military equipment but we’re not allowed to accept a phone call. First of all it would have been very rude not to accept the phone call.”
  • “Our companies can’t compete with them now because our currency is strong and it’s killing us.”
  • Later that night, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said during a CNN town hall that he was working closely with the president-elect to repeal the health-care law but shot down the idea that there would be a “deportation force” to remove illegal immigrants from the U.S. Mr. Trump had said during the campaign that there would be such a force.
  • Mr. Trump weighed in on the latest development of the issue that dominated the end of the campaign.
  • In another matter, Mr. Trump during Friday’s interview described a special council, made up of 15 to 20 builders and engineers, t
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Uganda Halts Military Cooperation With North Korea - The New York Times - 0 views

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  • Uganda Halts Military Cooperation With North Korea
  • Mr. Museveni agreed to comply with United Nations sanctions aimed at limiting North Korea’s capacity to earn foreign cash for its banned nuclear and missile program.
  • “We are disengaging the cooperation we are having with North Korea, as a result of U.N. sanctions,”
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  • Under economic pressure from international sanctions, North Korea has relied on the exports of weapons and the deployment of military instructors abroad as a source of foreign currency.
  • Mr. Museveni, in power since 1986, visited North Korea in 1987, 1990 and 1992 and met with Kim Il-sung. When he visited South Korea in 2013, he surprised officials by greeting them in Korean; he said he had learned it from Kim Il-sung, the South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
  • During her visit, Uganda and South Korea signed 10 cooperation agreements in areas like defense, health, rural development and communications technology, both governments said.
  • South Korea has exported $350,000 worth of helmets, bulletproof jackets and grenades to Uganda in the last three years, according to South Korean government data.
  • For decades, South Korea and North Korea have tried to undercut each other’s influence in Africa.
  • On Tuesday, North Korea launched a missile, but the test ended in failure, the South Korean military said. It was the latest in a recent string of test flops that have embarrassed Kim Jong-un, who has positioned his country’s missile and nuclear programs as his key achievement.
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AP - Iran's leader backs nuke talks, with conditions - 0 views

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  • Ahead of a new round of Iran nuclear talks, the country's supreme leader voiced support on Wednesday for the negotiations, but he insisted there are limits to concessions that Iran will make in exchange for an easing of sanctions choking its economy.
  • But his mention of Iran's "nuclear rights" was widely interpreted as a reference to uranium enrichment.
  • Iran would get some sanctions relief under such a first-step deal, without any easing of the most harsh measures — those crippling its ability to sell oil, its main revenue maker.
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  • But Iranian leaders have made clear that their country will not consider giving up its ability to make nuclear fuel — the centerpiece of the talks since the same process used to make reactor stock can be used to make weapons-grade material.
  • Khamenei said he would not "interfere in the details of the talks," in a clear nod of support for the government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which has opened historic exchanges with the U.S. However, Khamenei also said the main goal is "stabilization of the rights of the Iranian nation, including nuclear rights."
  • Khamenei also blasted what he called the U.S. government's "warmongering" policies, including threats of military action, and he said sanctions cannot force unwanted concessions by Iran.
  • Barack Obama also faces opposition to a deal from Israel, Saudi Arabia and critics in the U.S. Congress, who say an envisaged first-step deal would give Iran too much in the way of sanctions relief for too little in the way of concessions. They argue that Iran can't be trusted. Obama and his national security team counter that the risk is worth taking because the alternative is war no one wants.
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Iran, Emerging From Sanctions, Faces Crisis After Saudi Arabia Embassy Attack - The New... - 0 views

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  • Iran, Emerging From Sanctions, Faces Crisis After Saudi Arabia Embassy Attack
  • a Saudi state executioner beheaded the prominent Shiite dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday
  • Within hours of the execution, nationalist Iranian websites were calling for demonstrations in front of the Saudi Embassy in Tehran and its consulate in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad
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  • Iran might have capitalized on global outrage at the executions by Saudi Arabia, but instead it finds itself once again characterized by adversaries as a provocateur in the region and abroad.
  • The moves formalized the Sunni-Shiite polarization that has fueled the chaotic proxy wars
  • Now, some Iranians are wondering whether Saudi Arabia has again gained the upper hand in the new diplomatic crisis.
  • Sheikh Nimr was not only a leading opposition figure in the Saudis’ Sunni kingdom but also a symbol of Shiite activism abroad. After he was sentenced to death by the Saudi judiciary in 2014, Iran warned of “dire consequences” if Sheikh Nimr were to be executed.
  • The act of cutting ties seems a simple one, but the consequences can be far-reaching.
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China must stop enabling North Korea's nuclear program - LA Times - 0 views

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  • Unlike Iran, North Korea has been impervious to international efforts to force it to forswear the use of nuclear weapons. But new sanctions approved by the United Nations Security Council last week offer at least the possibility of altering North Korea's behavior. Much will depend on whether China, North Korea's patron, enabler and largest trading partner, follows the letter and spirit of the resolution it supported.
  • The measure was prompted by North Korea's test in January of what it characterized as a hydrogen bomb, as well as repeated missile test launches. But North Korean defiance of the international community stretches back years. Neither previous sanctions nor diplomacy have induced the reclusive regime in Pyongyang to end its nuclear program.
  • But even as it strengthens sanctions, the resolution leaves their enforcement to U.N. members. As a practical matter, that means North Korea will feel the pressure only if China takes its responsibilities seriously, rather than circumventing the sanctions on the pretext of avoiding “adverse humanitarian consequences.”
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  • Beijing must recognize that anxiety about North Korea's intentions threatens a nuclear arms race not just on the Korean peninsula but in the entire region. It also should realize that if it doesn't put meaningful pressure on North Korea, the U.S. may go forward with a high-altitude missile defense system in South Korea that China sees as a threat to its own arsenal. However justified it might be, a strengthening of South Korea's defenses would make it even less likely that there would be another round of negotiations involving the two Koreas, the U.S. China, Russia and Japan. The last version of such talks collapsed in 2009.
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Iranian Oil Lands in Europe for First Time Since Sanctions Ended - Bloomberg Business - 0 views

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  • The Monte Toledo oil tanker covered the uneventful voyage from Iran to Europe with a haul of one million barrels of crude in just 17 days, but its journey has been four years in the making.
  • On Sunday, the tanker became the first to deliver Iranian crude into Europe since mid-2012, when Brussels imposed an oil embargo in an attempt to force the Middle Eastern nation to negotiate the end of its nuclear program. The ban was lifted in January as part of a broader deal that ended a decade of sanctions.
  • In southern Spain, the tanker’s arrival was met with little fanfare. It was a quiet Sunday at the refinery, and for the workers, the Monte Toledo is just one of the eight or so vessels they expect to receive this month. By the time the refinery has taken in all the Iranian crude, another tanker from Algeria will be already waiting.
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  • Around Europe, other tankers with Iranian oil are close behind the Monte Toledo. In February, 29 vessels loaded crude from the Middle Eastern nation, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of them, three are heading toward Europe -- the Eurohope tanker is sailing to Constanta, an oil port in Romania, and the Atlantas is on its way to France. Another one, the Distya Akula, is anchored at the mouth of the Suez Canal, and is likely to head into a Mediterranean port.
  • Iran will want to win back customers in Europe, where Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other rival suppliers stepped in after the embargo was imposed. Tehran also faces a rival unknown four years ago: the U.S. has started exporting crude and companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp. are shipping American Crude into refineries in the Mediterranean.
  • If all goes as Tehran has planned, the Middle Eastern country will boost its production back to the 3.6 million barrels a day it pumped in 2011. After the European embargo was imposed and the U.S. tightened other sanctions, Iranian oil production dropped to about 2.8 million barrels a day.
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U.S. Prods China on North Korea, Saying Soft Approach Has Failed - The New York Times - 0 views

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  • U.S. Prods China on North Korea, Saying Soft Approach Has Failed
  • The Obama administration warned China on Thursday that its approach to reining in North Korea had “not worked” and said the time had come to end “business as usual” with the country Beijing has supported for the past six decades.
  • China’s approach to influencing North Korea — issuing warnings while also trying to warm long-strained relations — had proved a failure.
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  • “China had a particular approach that it wanted to make, and we agreed and respected to give them space to be able to implement that,
  • But today in my conversation with the Chinese I made it very clear: That has not worked and we cannot continue business as usual.”
  • Beijing has only agreed to impose bans on weapons shipments to the North and sanctions on specific companies and individuals linked to the nuclear program,
  • Kerry did not specify the sanctions that he wanted China to agree to, but two officials familiar with the discussions between the United States and its Security Council partners say the United States is drafting a resolution that envisions far more severe sanctions
  • The first would be a ban on North Korean ships in ports around the world
  • But the scope of that ban is unclear;
  • exceptions for food and humanitarian goods
  • A second set of sanctions under consideration is a cut-off of North Korean banking relationships, akin to the restrictions placed on Iran in the successful effort to drive it to the negotiation table on its nuclear program.
  • During the George W. Bush administration, the United States shut down transactions at one particular institution,
  • The most effective step against North Korea, most experts believe, would be the one that the Chinese most oppose: a restriction or cut-off of oil exports to the North.
  • South Korean and American officials said there was also renewed discussion of deploying an advanced missile defense system
  • Taken together, those steps amount to what one American official called “a big wish list.” And they all reflect the reality of economic interdependence, which makes it hard for the South Koreans, or the United States, to be too confrontational with China.
  • North Korea then threatened to attack the loudspeakers, which it said sullied the “dignity of our supreme leadership,” and put its military on what it called a “semi-war” footing,
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Iran sanctions lifted: Brace for oil shakeup - Jan. 16, 2016 - 0 views

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  • The end of economic sanctions against Iran could shake up oil markets.
  • U.S. and European Union sanctions on Tehran were finally lifted on Saturday, restoring Iran's access to world's markets. Iran has been gearing up for this moment for months and could soon return to the top ranks of global oil producers.
  • Tehran is in a tricky position. The more oil it exports, the more likely prices will drop even more. Iran has relatively low production costs compared to other countries, but another slump in prices would put its plans at risk. The country desperately needs heavy investments in its out-of-date oil infrastructure
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As sanctions are lifted, Iranian foes fear the worst | Fox News - 0 views

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  • JERUSALEM –  As the nuclear deal with Tehran goes into effect, many Middle Eastern countries fear a newly emboldened Iran, flush with cash and international recognition, will grow more aggressive with what they see as meddling in conflicts across the region.
  • The deal, clinched last summer after intense negotiations, forced Iran to dismantle most of its nuclear program, a step that proponents say will prevent it from gaining the capability to make a bomb for well over a decade. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Saturday certified that Iran had met its obligations, paving the way for Western sanctions to be lifted and giving Iran access to $100 billion in frozen assets.
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was an outspoken critic of the deal, making veiled threats to attack Iran and arguing against the agreement in a speech to the U.S. Congress last year over White House objections. He says the deal will not curb Iran's ultimate nuclear aspirations and does not impede Iran's longstanding support for Israel's worst enemies, like the Lebanese Hezbollah group — which is also involved in Syria on Assad's side — and the Palestinian Hamas.
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  • While Gulf states cautiously welcomed last year's nuclear deal, they are deeply suspicious of Iran's activities, particularly on the Arabian Peninsula.
  • The foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has taken to Twitter in recent days to criticize Iran and poke fun at his Iranian counterpart. "Don't torch, take over or ransack embassies and consulates. Don't take diplomats hostage. #DiploMaturity101," read one post.
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Senator Jim Risch on North Korea and the "Bloody Nose" - The Atlantic - 0 views

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  • At a recent security conference in Munich, Senator James Risch cautioned that a “very brief” conflict “of biblical proportions” could erupt between the United States and North Korea, leaving in its wake “mass casualties the likes of which the planet has never seen.” He then promptly left his stunned audience to catch a flight. This week, back in Washington, D.C., the Idaho Republican explained the warning. He expressed some hope that economic sanctions and other pressure will make North Korean leader Kim Jong Un rethink his pursuit of nuclear weapons. But if that doesn’t happen, he suggested, the nuclear threat from North Korea is so exceptional that the Trump administration could feel obligated to embark on an all-out war.
  • “The president of the United States has said over and over again that he does not telegraph what and when and how he is going to do something,” he continued. “He proved it once in Syria, in response to [President] Assad using chemical weapons against his people, and he proved it a second time in Afghanistan when he delivered” the “mother of all bombs” against ISIS targets. “Both of those times that he pulled the trigger were very surgical, very direct, accomplished exactly what they were supposed to accomplish.”
  • Isn’t the possibility of miscalculation a good argument for talking to the North Koreans, if only to handle crises? “Of course it is,” Risch said. “Civilized people would do that, wouldn’t they?” But North Korea’s “recklessness” and “maliciousness” mean that its leaders are “entirely different than the civilized people we’re dealing with who are nuclear powers,” he said.
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  • Risch hopes the severe sanctions that the Trump administration has imposed on North Korea will have an impact on the trajectory of the crisis. Yet here too he has his doubts. “Is [Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign] causing them grief? Yes it’s causing them grief,” he said. “Has it caused them to change their thinking and their actions? Not yet.” The administration just implemented strong measures against ships and shipping companies that are helping North Korea evade restrictions on importing and exporting fuel, he noted. But in terms of sanctions, “we’re about at the end of the road as far as the kinds of things we can do.”
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Iran nuclear deal: Trump's high-stakes balancing act - BBC News - 0 views

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  • Advertisement US & Canada US & Canada Iran nuclear deal: Trump's high-stakes balancing act
  • President Donald Trump has extended sanctions relief for Iran one last time, says the White House. What does it mean?The announcement puts a question mark over the future of the nuclear accord signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015.
  • What are the waivers? For years, economic sanctions were imposed by the US on Iran to try to curb its nuclear programme. These measures cut Iran off from the global financial system.
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  • What is recertification? Recertification of the nuclear deal is a two-part process. Verifying that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal is part of it. However, the second part involves the White House certifying that the nuclear deal remains in the US national security interest.
  • Why does Trump dislike the deal?Mr Trump's repeated excoriation of the JCPOA as the "worst deal ever" while electioneering sought to depict the Obama administration as weak.When he refused in October to continue to recertify the deal, the p
  • What next?The waiver suspends sanctions on Iran for 120 days. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his department is weighing further sanctions in light of the protests.
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House of Habsburg | European dynasty | Britannica.com - 0 views

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  • royal German family
  • of Europe from the 15th to the 20th century
  • The name Habsburg is derived from the castle of Habsburg
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  • built in 1020 by Werner
  • in the Aargau
  • in what is now Switzerland
  • rebelled against the German king Otto I in 950
  • Rudolf II of Habsburg (died 1232)
  • Rudolf III’s descendants, however, sold their portion, including Laufenburg, to Albert IV’s descendants before dying out in 1408
  • Albert IV’s son Rudolf IV of Habsburg was elected German king as Rudolf I in 1273. It was he who, in 1282, bestowed Austria and Styria on his two sons Albert (the future German king Albert I) and Rudolf (reckoned as Rudolf II of Austria). From that date the agelong identification of the Habsburgs with Austria begins
  • the most formidable dynasty was no longer the Habsburg but the Bourbon. In the War of the Grand Alliance (1689–97) the rising powers that 100 years earlier had been Habsburg Spain’s principal enemies and feeble France’s most fluent encouragers
  • Apart from the Bourbon ascendancy
  • The physical debility of Charles II of Spain was such that no male heir could be expected to be born to him
  • his crowns would pass to the electoral prince of Bavaria, Joseph Ferdinand, son of his niece Maria Antonia, daughter of the emperor Leopold I.
  • Charles II’s next natural heirs were the descendants (1) of his half-sister, who had married Louis XIV of France, and (2) of his father’s two sisters, of whom one had been Louis XIV’s mother and the other the emperor Leopold I’s
  • Critical tension developed: on the one hand neither the imperial Habsburgs nor their British and Dutch friends could consent to their Bourbon enemy’s acquiring the whole Spanish inheritance
  • Charles II in the meantime regarded any partition of his inheritance as a humiliation to Spain: dying in 1700, he named as his sole heir a Bourbon prince, Philip of Anjou, the second of Louis XIV’s grandsons. The War of the Spanish Succession ensued
  • To allay British and Dutch misgivings, Leopold I and his elder son, the future emperor Joseph I, in 1703 renounced their own claims to Spain in favour of Joseph’s brother Charles, so that he might found a second line of Spanish Habsburgs distinct from the imperial
  • Sardinia, however, was exchanged by him in 1717 for Sicily, which the peacemakers of Utrecht had assigned to the House of Savoy.
  • Charles remained technically at war with Bourbon Spain until 1720
  • Meanwhile the extinction of the Spanish Habsburgs’ male line and the death of his brother Joseph left Charles, in 1711, as the last male Habsburg. He had therefore to consider what should happen after his death. No woman could rule the Holy Roman Empire, and furthermore the Habsburg succession in some of the hereditary lands was assured only to the male line
  • he issued his famous Pragmatic Sanction of April 19, 1713, prescribing that, in the event of his dying sonless, the whole inheritance should pass (1) to a daughter of his, according to the rule of primogeniture, and thence to her descendants; next (2) if he himself left no daughter, to his late brother’s daughters, under the same conditions; and finally (3) if his nieces’ line was extinct, to the heirs of his paternal aunts
  • The attempt to win general recognition for his Pragmatic Sanction was Charles VI’s main concern from 1716 onward
  • By 1738, at the end of the War of the Polish Succession (in which he lost both Naples and Sicily to a Spanish Bourbon but got Parma and Piacenza
  • acknowledged the Pragmatic Sanction. His hopes were illusory: less than two months after his death, in 1740, his daughter Maria Theresa had to face a Prussian invasion of Silesia, which unleashed the War of the Austrian Succession
  • Bavaria then promptly challenged the Habsburg position in Germany; and France’s support of Bavaria encouraged Saxony to follow suit and Spain to try to oust the Habsburgs from Lombardy
  • The War of the Austrian Succession cost Maria Theresa most of Silesia, part of Lombardy, and the duchies of Parma and Piacenza (Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748) but left her in possession of the rest of her father’s hereditary lands
  • her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, who in 1737 had become hereditary grand duke of Tuscany, was finally recognized as Holy Roman emperor, with the title of Francis I. He and his descendants, of the House of Habsburg–Lorraine, are the dynastic continuators of the original Habsburgs
  • An Austro-French entente was subsequently maintained until 1792: the marriage of the archduchess Marie-Antoinette to the future Louis XVI of France (1770) was intended to confirm it
  • the Habsburgs exerted themselves to consolidate and to expand their central European bloc of territory
  • when the emperor Francis I died (1765), his eldest son, the emperor Joseph II, became coregent with his mother of the Austrian dominions, but Joseph’s brother Leopold became grand duke of Tuscany
  • The northeastward expansion of Habsburg central Europe, which came about in Joseph II’s time, was a result not so much of Joseph’s initiative as of external events: the First Partition of Poland (1772)
  • The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars brought a kaleidoscopic series of changes
  • On Napoleon’s downfall the Congress of Vienna (1814–15) inaugurated the Restoration, from which the battered House of Habsburg naturally benefitted
  • a brother of the Holy Roman emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, had in 1771 married the heiress of the House of Este; and Napoleon’s Habsburg consort, Marie Louise
  • The history of the House of Habsburg for the century following the Congress of Vienna is inseparable from that of the Austrian Empire
  • German, Italian, Hungarian, Slav, and Romanian—gradually eroded. The first territorial losses came in 1859, when Austria had to cede Lombardy to Sardinia–Piedmont, nucleus of the emergent kingdom of Italy
  • Next, the Seven Weeks’ War of 1866, in which Prussia, exploiting German nationalism, was in alliance with Italy, forced Austria both to renounce its hopes of reviving its ancient hegemony in Germany and to cede Venetia.
  • Franz Joseph took a step intended to consolidate his “multinational empire”
  • he granted to that kingdom equal status with the Austrian Empire in what was henceforth to be the Dual Monarchy of Austria–Hungary.
  • The ardent German nationalists of the Austrian Empire, as opposed to the Germans who were simply loyal to the Habsburgs, took the same attitude as did the Magyars
  • Remote from Austria’s national concerns but still wounding to the House of Habsburg was the fate of Franz Joseph’s brother Maximilian: set up by the French as emperor of Mexico in 1864
  • In 1878 Austro-Hungarian forces had “occupied” Bosnia and Herzegovina, which belonged to declining Turkey
  • World War I led to the dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire. While Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, and Italians were all claiming their share of the spoil, nothing remained to Charles, the last emperor and king, but “German” Austria and Hungary proper
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'Russia in the doldrums?': new U.S. sanctions to weigh on recovery | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...eigh-on-recovery-idUSKBN1HG2IT russia u s recovery
shared by krystalxu on 31 May 18 - No Cached
  • MOSCOW (Reuters) - An escalation in U.S. sanctions against Moscow risks derailing a fragile recovery in Russia’s economy, which had just begun to take hold after the Kremlin’s last confrontation with the West in 2014, analysts and investors said on Monday.
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Coronavirus is Idling North Korea's Ships; Achieving What Sanctions Did Not - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...coronavirus-north-korea.html politics history crisis culture northkorea health trade medicine covid19 coronavirus
shared by bluekoenig on 26 Mar 20 - No Cached
  • bluekoenig on 26 Mar 20
     
    One of the most interesting things to come out of this pandemic is that illegal and illicit trade between North Korea and China has likely been halted due to North Korea's fear of the coronavirus. Satellite images show an unusual amount of ships sitting idle outside of Nampo, North Korea, where North Korea takes in sanctioned shipments of coal and oil forbidden by the United Nations. These ships could either be Chinese ships waiting for ports to open or Korean ships sitting idle after being pulled back from sea trading with China. North Korea was sanctioned by the UN in the first place because they were putting much of its revenue into nuclear weapons development. This could also have an impact on North Korea's agricultural industry as they depend on illicit oil to power their machines. To North Korea, the coronavirus has become more threatening than United Nations sanctions.
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North Korea: Pyongyang vows 'suffering' ahead of sanctions vote - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html
shared by davisem on 11 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • North Korea has warned the United States that it will pay a "due price" if harsh sanctions against the country are agreed at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday.
  • The US had proposed some of the strictest sanctions yet against the already heavily censured nation. It called for a full ban on oil exports to the country, and an immediate asset freeze on North Korean leader leader Kim Jong Un and his government for all financial assets held overseas, among other measures.
  • China -- North Korea's most powerful ally -- said Monday that it supported the Security Council's plan for a "further response" to North Korea and to take "necessary actions."
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  • The test sent powerful tremors across the region, suggesting the device used was the most powerful the nation has ever tested. Pyongyang claims it tested a hydrogen bomb capable of sitting atop a ballistic missile.
  • North Korea commemorated the 69th anniversary of its founding on Saturday, holding large patriotic displays of dancing and devotion to the Kim family.
  • We know the Americans may come back with many more sanctions but in response we Koreans will continue shooting up many more missiles and conducting many more H-bomb tests," North Korean shop assistant Han Myong Sim told CNN's Will Ripley.
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Opinion | How President Biden Can Support Myanmar - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...myanmar-biden-help.html opinion biden support myanmar new york times crisis policy Politics
shared by leilamulveny on 10 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • Myanmar’s nominal transition to democracy ended abruptly on Feb. 1 when the military arrested the civilian government and seized power. This coup was the most egregious among the three in the country’s modern history. The military claimed it was acting in response to election irregularities, but the charges it later imposed on elected leaders — the country’s civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was accused of illegally importing walkie-talkies, for example — were preposterous. Of course, the Burmese military leaders’ actual goal is to nullify the results of the November 2020 democratic elections.
  • Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, later expanded sanctions to include individual members of the Burmese military.
  • More than 130 nongovernmental organizations around the world have called on the Security Council to take such action.
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  • The United States should ensure that companies that do business in America are not also doing business with Singaporean companies that have interests in Myanmar.
  • Since Mr. Biden rightly designated Myanmar’s crisis “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States” in his executive order, he should also ask Congress to investigate how the Burmese military’s actions endanger the security of the United States.
  • The Burmese military spent much of the past three decades operating under economic sanctions imposed by the United States and the European Union. Military leaders have recently made clear they are not afraid of blanket sanctions. While the military may not fear sanctions, coup leaders have responded violently to courageous protesters.
  • The military responded with a massacre. I fled, along with close to 10,000 other student activists, to the forested areas along the border with Thailand. Eventually I made my way to the United States, where I now teach political science, social change in Southeast Asia and the challenge of establishing democracies.
  • leilamulveny on 10 Mar 21
     
    Tun Myint (@DrTunMyint) is an associate professor of political science at Carleton College in Minnesota. He was a student leader of the 1988 democracy movement in Myanmar and is a co-founder of Mutual Aid Myanmar.
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Donald Trump declares Syria ceasefire permanent and lifts Turkey sanctions | US news | ... - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...rmanent-lifts-sanctions-turkey trump politics US
shared by brickol on 23 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Donald Trump has announced that the US will lift sanctions on Turkey, taking credit for a ceasefire deal that should end Ankara’s attack on Kurdish-led forces – at the price of ending the Kurds’ dream of local autonomy.
  • said on Wednesday that a “small number” of US troops would remain in Syria’s oilfields.
  • Trump emphasized that US troops were “safe” and said America would leave other powers to fight each other in the region.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Russian troops expanded their presence across north-eastern Syria, the result of an agreement between Ankara and Moscow.
  • Trump announced a series of financial punishments on Ankara – including the reimposition of 50% tariffs on Turkish steel – after Turkey launched its attack on Kurdish-led forces in north-eastern Syria.
  • “The government of Turkey informed my administration that they would be stopping combat and their offensive in Syria, and making the ceasefire permanent,” Trump said. “I have, therefore, instructed the secretary of the Treasury to lift all sanctions imposed October 14,” he added.
  • Some troops would remain in Syria’s oilfields,
  • James Jeffrey, told the US Congress that American forces had seen “several incidents of what we consider war crimes” by Turkish forces, during the recent attack on the Kurds.
  • Jeffrey also said that “over 100” Islamic State prisoners had escaped during the Turkish offensive and “we do not know where they are.”
  • Turkish troops, allied Syrian rebel proxies, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and soldiers belonging to the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, are now all present in the border zone, with Russia the only negotiating force between them.
  • The talks on Tuesday between Erdoğan and the Russian president defined the contours of Turkey’s long-proposed border “safe zone”: Turkish troops in the area seized since the offensive began on 9 October will remain in situ, and Russian soldiers and the Syrian army will control the rest of the frontier.
  • Russian ministry of defence published a map showing 15 planned border observation posts that will be manned by the Syrian regime.
  • fate of local military councils set up by the SDF in border towns previously under their control and what happens to the SDF’s non-Kurdish units remains unclear.
  • It is believed they will retain control of the approximately 90,000 men, women and children with links to Islamic State being held in Kurdish-run prisons and detention camps.
  • At least 120 Syrians have died and 176,000 people have fled their homes over the last two weeks of violence, with 20 Turkish civilian deaths on the other side of the border.
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