They are uncomfortable partners who do not always see eye to eye. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon have a permanent link via the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Co-operation between the two, whether in Eastern Europe or further afield, has taken on new significance, most recently when they met on Saturday to discuss who will fund Syria's reconstruction.
Mr Putin was keen to play the refugee card, claiming EU funding to rebuild Syria will displace the issue as they return home. But the real question remains: to what will they be returning? Syrian civilians have no guarantees of safety while their future lies in the hands of self-serving regional and international players.
Even as the Syrian regime has begun issuing death certificates for the missing and imprisoned – many supposedly killed by heart attacks – airstrikes are still raining barrel bombs on terrified civilians in the last rebel stronghold of Idlib. Yet the slow creep of political transition is already in the air and as Mr Putin further entrenches himself as Mr Al Assad’s main sponsor, it seems inevitable that whatever solution is reached in next month’s four-way summit, he will sit at its heart.
After calling for his removal, European powers and the US seem resigned to accepting a role for Mr Al Assad in Syria’s transition. That is a tragedy for the Syrian people, who have endured countless assaults for seven years from regime bombs and chemical weapons.
Whatever the future holds, the stabilisation and reconstruction of Syria will require enormous investment. The UN’s Arab agency ESCWA has put the cost of damage to infrastructure at $388 billion. Last weekend the US cancelled plans to spend $200 million on stabilisation of areas cleared of ISIS militants, a sum that has been met by other countries, among them Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Nevertheless, America’s retreat from Syria will further empower the likes of Russia and Turkey. From here, it is not clear what the political endgame in Syria will look like. One can only hope fervently that it places ordinary Syrians at its very heart.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Tuesday's fixtures
Kyrgyzstan v Qatar, 5.45pm
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
