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Helsinki has landed the biggest cheque Google has written anywhere in Europe
The company announced on Wednesday that a €13 billion investment will fund data centres and supporting infrastructure across four municipalities, along with clean energy projects and funds dedicated to local biodiversity, education, research and workforce development.
The facilities in Hamina, Kajaani, Muhos and Vaala will power a range of Google services, among them its Gemini chatbot. The company described the decision as “a testament to Finland’s leadership in responsibly building AI infrastructure.”
Construction is expected across 2027 and 2028, and the firm estimates the investment will add €3.6 billion a year to Finland’s GDP while supporting more than 37,000 jobs, roughly 16,000 of them in construction.
Once the building stops, Google projects the sites will sustain around 7,000 jobs annually, spanning technical and facility roles, equipment suppliers, as well as the shops, restaurants and services used by those workers and their families.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo welcomed the announcement in Google’s statement.
“Google’s decision is a clear testament to our strengths. The value of the data economy extends far beyond direct investment into spurring innovation, research and development,” Orpo said, adding that closer collaboration would “deliver lasting benefits for both parties.”
The appeal to invest in Finland is rooted in its cold climate.
Data centres generate enormous heat and consume vast quantities of electricity, and Finland offers a cold climate that reduces cooling costs alongside relatively cheap and stable power from nuclear plants, wind and hydro.
That combination has produced a boom, with dozens of data centres already under construction across the country.
Google’s own presence dates back to 2009, when it bought a disused paper mill in the coastal city of Hamina and converted it, expanding steadily since.
For Orpo’s right-wing government, attracting this kind of investment has also been a priority, especially since Finnish elections will take place in April of next year.
Finland is contending with record unemployment and weak growth, and the data economy has become one of the few sectors offering the prospect of substantial investment and job creation.
Additional sources • AFP
Military operations in Yemen intensified on Wednesday with clashes expanding across several fronts, according to reports by Saudi-owned news channels Al Arabiya and Al Hadath.
The Yemeni armed forces reported that fighting with the Iran-backed Houthi militia has been continuing on the Taiz fronts of Toil and Al-Barah, and claim to have inflicted heavy losses on the group.
Al Arabiya and Al Hadath have reported that Yemeni government forces have captured areas in southern Mahreb, as well as several positions in the northern and southern sectors.
The forces have also reportedly captured new positions and villages on the Al-Kaddah front west of Taiz during an operation against the Houthis.
The offensive was accompanied by heavy clashes, artillery fire and airstrikes targeting Houthi positions, gatherings and reinforcements in the area.
Al Arabiya and Al Hadath sources also said the Yemeni armed forces had launched a counterattack against Houthi positions on the Meris front north of Al-Dhale Governorate.
The sources also reported that Yemeni military aircraft had carried out several airstrikes on the Houthi-held Helan Mountains west of Marib.
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The front month contract on Brent crude, the international standard for oil prices, crossed $100 per barrel again on Wednesday morning while the US standard, WTI, hovered around $95.
Prices have risen almost 20% since the middle of last week as fighting around the world’s most important oil chokepoint has once again intensified.
It is also the first time since 23 July that oil has hit the $100 mark.
US Central Command said its forces destroyed five Iranian tankers carrying crude oil on 8 September after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at a US Navy warship twice within two days. The command did not identify the ship, but said it was not hit and continued patrolling regional waters.
It followed a similar strike on 5 September, when Iranian forces fired ballistic missiles at a US aircraft carrier and a destroyer, both of which evaded the attack. The command responded by disabling or destroying three Iranian tankers.
Tehran retaliated by firing missiles at a US military base in Jordan, where air defences intercepted most of them, and renewed threats to target tankers in Kuwaiti and Bahraini waters.
Iran has also repeatedly warned vessels against using unauthorised routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Tehran would soon declare an exclusion zone outside the strait, warning that any vessel entering without Iranian coordination would be added to a sanctions list.
Saudi Arabia has been drawn in too, with Aramco facilities at Jazan attacked again on Monday, though damage was reported as limited.
Roughly 7 million barrels a day are still moving through the Strait of Hormuz, against about 20 million before the war began on 28 February.
The military escalation is running alongside a financial one.
Washington launched Operation Economic Outcast in late August, an effort to sever Iran from the global financial system by targeting its access to digital assets, technology, gold, aviation and shipping.
The US Treasury designated close to 60 companies, individuals and vessels at the outset and has signalled fresh measures weekly, with the European Union endorsing the campaign this month.
Rhetoric on both sides has hardened.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the country “will destroy [and sink]” Iranian oil tankers if Iran fires on American vessels while the Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf replied by stating “strike our assets and you get struck”.
US President Donald Trump has continued to insist the waterway is functioning, posting on Truth Social last week that “Hormuz volumes are BACK” and claiming 18 million barrels a day were flowing.
However, the US Energy Secretary Chris Wright put Monday’s figure at 17 million barrels of crude and products combined, while acknowledging the multi-day rolling average is considerably lower.
During last week’s White House press conference, US Vice President JD Vance also declined to categorise the ongoing conflict as a war and stated that “the only reason we do not have a worldwide energy crisis is because of the leadership of the President.”
Faced with the latest developments, analysts are adjusting upward.
Goldman Sachs raised its Brent and WTI forecasts by $5 on Monday to $85 and $80, respectively, for December and warned prices could exceed $120 next year should Gulf output remain 4 million barrels a day below pre-war levels, though the bank does not treat that as its base case.
NEW YORK: Carlos Alcaraz tumbled out of the US Open quarter-finals at 3:34 am Wednesday, falling to Ben Shelton in an epic five-set thriller that broke the record for latest finish ever at Flushing Meadows.
The big-hitting Shelton claimed his first career win over Alcaraz, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (10/7), ending the Spaniard’s hopes of retaining his title in his first tournament back after a four-month injury absence.
European CFOs must adjust as the region’s biggest pension buyer of long-dated debt cuts back.
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
The Netherlands pension system is beginning to reduce one of Europe’s most reliable sources of demand for long-dated debt as a broad regulatory shift changes how Dutch pension funds manage their assets and liabilities. ING Groep NV estimates that nearly €600 billion ($699 billion) of assets have already been affected by the change, with more than €900 billion expected to follow early next year.
Under the old defined-benefit pension system, Dutch funds were required to hedge the interest-rate sensitivity of long-term pension liabilities by using long-dated bonds and swaps to match assets with payments extending decades into the future. Under the new defined-contribution model, which became law in 2023, that liability matching requirement has been significantly reduced, allowing funds to carry less duration and scale back their long-term hedges, resulting in less structural demand for the longest-dated debt and swaps.
For European CFOs, this could mean a higher premium for 20-, 30- and 50-year borrowing as companies and governments compete for a smaller pool of long-duration investors.
The change “should reduce structural demand for long-end duration assets and support curve steepeners over the long-term horizon,” wrote Sara Adjir, senior vice president and portfolio manager, and Jeroen van Bezooijen, account manager, at Pacific Investment Management Co., in a research note. They expect the impact will be mostly concentrated in 50-year swaps, but will also be felt in the demand for 20- and 30-year euro swaps and government bonds, including German and Dutch debt.
The Netherlands runs Europe’s largest pension system, with roughly €1.6 trillion in assets, and every fund must complete the switch by January 2028. Dutch pensions have long dominated the market for European long-dated debt, holding around €88 billion of interest-rate swaps maturing beyond 25 years at the end of last year, roughly a quarter of the total.
The first major wave of the transition came on Jan. 1, when 24 funds converted, among them the healthcare scheme PFZW and the metals scheme PMT, with an estimated €550 billion to €600 billion of pension assets between them. Analysis by the Netherlands central bank shows that Dutch pensions bought almost €34 billion net of swaps maturing inside 25 years while selling more than €12 billion of longer-dated ones.
The bigger test, however, comes when more than €900 billion of pension assets is scheduled to convert on Jan. 1, with the Dutch civil service scheme ABP accounting for about €530 billion of that.
The shift does not mean long-dated Dutch debt is suddenly becoming illiquid or even hard to sell: “Overall, we still see strong demand for our 30-year bond. Remember, we are AAA,” said Saskia van Dun, director of the Dutch State Treasury Agency.
Data indicates that sovereign borrowers are already adjusting to the change.
The share of Netherlands government bonds sold at maturities beyond 10 years fell from 42% at the start of 2025 to 31% by the third quarter, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which calls the constraint on long tenors structural. The OECD expects eurozone debt agencies to sell a record €1.35 trillion of medium- and long-term bonds this year into that thinner pool of demand.
For European finance chiefs, however, times are changing. For two decades, long-dated bond demand was unusually deep and predictable. As it recedes, the shifting cost of locking in 20 or 30 years of funding could become a live question.
Thomas Monteiro is a contributing writer based in Spain.
Ameren prices $900M junior subordinated notes due 2057
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Frankfurt will almost certainly move on Thursday.
Market odds put a quarter-point hike at close to certainty, which would lift the European Central Bank’s deposit rate from 2.25% to 2.5%.
What makes this a difficult call is not whether the ECB acts, but why, and whether the reasoning survives contact with the data.
The path here has been compressed as the ECB raised rates on 11 June for the first time in three years, lifting the deposit rate from 2% to 2.25% in response to the energy shock from the Iran war, and then held rates in July while Christine Lagarde pointed hawkishly towards September.
August’s inflation figures removed any remaining doubt with eurozone inflation hitting 3.3%, up from 2.9% in July and the highest since September 2023, as energy inflation surged to 14.3% from 10.3%.
Look beneath the headline inflation and the picture inverts.
Core inflation, which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, actually fell to 2.4% from 2.5%. Services inflation, the component most closely tied to wages and domestic demand, dropped to 3% from 3.3%.
In other words, there is still little evidence that expensive energy is feeding through into everything else. That is what economists mean by “second-round effects”, and their absence is the strongest argument against tightening.
The ECB’s own research also supports the distinction.
In a paper published on Tuesday, ECB economists found that adverse energy supply factors, driven by geopolitical tensions, accounted for around 90% of the rise in energy inflation between January and May.
“This time the energy supply shock dominates, while demand and public policy stimulus have minor roles,” the economists wrote, adding that “these differences are key to explaining why monetary policy responses differ.”
The 2021-22 surge, by contrast, came from “a combination of large and unprecedented supply and demand-side factors,” which is why the ECB then “raised interest rates forcefully and persistently” rather than gradually.
The national spread across the EU further underlines how uneven this is.
August inflation ran at 4.5% in Spain, 2.9% in Germany and 2.7% in France, three economies facing the same energy shock with very different results, all governed by one interest rate.
Economic growth is the other complication.
The eurozone has proved more resilient than expected, which ING attributes partly to luck, partly to Asian competitors suffering more from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and partly to fiscal stimulus. However, resilience does not mean the growth could not, or should not, accelerate.
ING characterises Thursday’s expected move as “another insurance rate hike”, or “a dovish rate hike,” noting that even at 2.5% the deposit rate sits within the range the ECB itself considers neutral.
Going further would mean deciding restrictive policy is required, which would be a different judgement entirely.
The ECB is not acting alone, and that matters for the euro.
The Federal Reserve meets on 15 and 16 September, with Chair Kevin Warsh having used his first Jackson Hole address to argue that financial conditions are not restrictive and underlying inflation has not improved.
Investors had put the odds of a US hike at roughly one in three before those remarks, but now price a 60% chance the Fed hikes the target range from 3.5%-3.75% to 3.75%-4%.
The Bank of Japan follows on 17 and 18 September, with markets pricing an 80% to 90% chance of a move to 1.25%.
On the other hand, the Bank of England is expected to hold rates at 3.75% on 17 September as it currently maintains a much higher interest rate than the rest.
If the Fed were to hike while the ECB held, the dollar would strengthen against the euro and that would cut both ways for Frankfurt.
A weaker euro makes European exports more competitive, but it also makes imports dearer, and since oil and gas are priced in dollars, it would push up precisely the energy costs driving the inflation problem in the first place.
Overall, we can assume a September rate hike is a done deal for the ECB but we can also project that it won’t solve the central bank’s current dilemma of raising borrowing costs against an inflation it cannot reach, while withdrawing support an economy could still use.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday they attacked two US vessels, eight oil tankers and 10 “non-compliant vessels” trying to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, state media reported.
“Two US vessels, eight oil tankers, and 10 non-compliant vessels attempting to pass through the prohibited and unsafe zone of the Strait of Hormuz were targeted,” the Guards said in a statement published by the official IRNA.
Meanwhile, six cargo ships transited the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, Tuesday, compared to nine ships the previous day and an average of about 12 ships over ten days, according to shipping data released today, Wednesday.
These numbers may change, as some ships typically choose not to operate their transponders during the voyage.
Preliminary data from Kpler at 0200 GMT showed that five of the six ships entered the strait while one exited, and the group included a Panamax-sized tanker and a medium-sized tanker.
The US-Israeli war on Iran escalated yesterday, Tuesday, as Houthi militia in Yemen, allied with Tehran, launched attacks on Saudi cities, further involving the kingdom in the conflict.
Simultaneously, US forces targeted several Iranian oil tankers, while Iran struck a US base in Jordan.
Meanwhile, 25 cargo ships transited the Bab El-Mandeb Strait yesterday, Tuesday, with 11 ships entering and 14 exiting the other vital Middle Eastern waterway.
This compares to an average of about 27 ships transiting the Bab El-Mandeb Strait over the past ten days.
Among the ships that transited the Bab El-Mandeb Strait were two Suezmax tankers, eight Aframax tankers, and a Very Large Crude Carrier.
New York: Frances Tiafoe rallied from two sets down — and 3-0 down in the fifth set — to edge 22-year-old Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10/6) and reach the US Open semi-finals on Tuesday.
American 11th seed Tiafoe had all he could handle from his 22-year-old compatriot, who hadn’t dropped a set in reaching the first Grand Slam quarter-final of his career.
But in a match of swinging momentum shifts, Tiafoe battled back from 5-3 down in the third set and recovered an early break in the fifth to reach his third US Open semi-final in five years.
Tiafoe clinched it in the 10-point match tiebreaker after four hours and 38 minutes, Michelsen weeping in the victor’s arms as they met at the net.
Tiafoe will face either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or eighth-seeded American Ben Shelton for a place in Sunday’s championship match.
Michelsen came out swinging on Arthur Ashe Stadium against an uncharacteristically passive Tiafoe, who usually feeds on the energy of the crowd.
But when Michelsen found himself serving for the match at 5-4 in the third, his nerves betrayed him. Two double faults helped Tiafoe break back, and Tiafoe strung together seven straight games to close out the third set and seize control of the fourth.
Michelsen, who has yet to win a title on the ATP Tour, responded with an early break in the fifth set, but Tiafoe refused to fold.
“He gave me some gifts, a couple of double faults there,” Tiafoe said of his narrow escape in the third set.
“But then I slowly started to get my rhythm there, snuck out third set and slowly started playing better and better.
“But he is a hell of a player,” Tiafoe added. “He should have easily won today.”
When he had completed the comeback Tiafoe flung his arms into the air, then consoled a weeping Michelsen at the net.
“I was like, man, I know, I’ve been there,” Tiafoe told ESPN. “I know how much that hurts.”
NEW YORK CITY: The UN secretary-general’s personal envoy for Sudan, Pekka Haavisto, joined fellow “Quintet” mediators in Khartoum on Tuesday for a round of talks aimed at reviving an inclusive political process that can end the conflict in Sudan, the UN said.
The Quintet group — comprising the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, the League of Arab States, the EU and the UN — held what Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, described as a “good offices mission” to hear an assessment by Sudanese stakeholders of the political and security situation in the country, and to share reflections on efforts to advance peace.
The envoys met at the Sudanese Foreign Ministry before engaging with representatives of UN agencies, Dujarric told reporters in New York. Next, they will meet Sudanese political and civilian representatives, followed by further engagements, he said.
Sudan has been locked in a civil war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and rival paramilitary faction the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023.
Haavisto arrived in Khartoum on Friday and held a series of meetings with the chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, the prime minister, the foreign minister and senior government officials, as well as other political leaders and representatives of civil society, Dujarric said.
Haavisto’s talks over the weekend focused on “practical measures to advance deescalation and the protection of civilians,” Dujarric added. He also raised the issue of the release and exchange of detainees, and stressed the importance of a single national examination process for all Sudanese schoolchildren.
Haavisto called for an inclusive political process alongside concrete steps to reduce violence in the country, insisting that a negotiated settlement remained “the only viable path” toward a comprehensive ceasefire agreement and a sustainable end to the conflict.
The envoy is expected to remain in Sudan until the end of this week.
LONDON: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has voiced support for the UK’s new ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
He told The Guardian that the decision, announced by Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband, “became unavoidable as a result of a continuous effort of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by a large group of Jewish terrorists in the West Bank.”
Olmert added: “The crimes of these terrorists are actively assisted by police and military units over a long period of time.
“The highest levels of government led by Minister of Defence (Israel) Katz and Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu are actively supporting these terrorists and avoid taking the necessary measures to stop it.”
Olmert’s comments come as Israelis prepare to go to the polls late next month. “Millions of Israelis are appalled by this terror and are actively resisting the terrorists,” he said.
“Sanctions are directed against the terrorists not against Israel, and as such they are unavoidable.”
In announcing the new UK policy, Miliband referenced earlier comments by Olmert, saying: “Ehud Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, has described what is happening as, I quote, ‘a violent and criminal effort to ethnically cleanse territories in the West Bank.’”
Political analysts believe that the latest Houthi attacks open a new phase in Saudi Arabia’s approach to the Iran-backed group, marked by a shift from managing and containing escalation to firmly deterring it. They said that Riyadh will not accept the targeting of its citizens and residents on its territory, or attacks on its vital facilities.
The analysts told Asharq Al-Awsat that this phase is witnessing an advanced level of political, military, and security coordination between Saudi Arabia and Yemen’s legitimate government, strengthening the latter’s ability to confront sources of threat and reshape the balance of power on the ground.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Tuesday that his country would not hesitate to defend itself against attacks by the terrorist Houthi militia and would use all available means to protect its interests.
Speaking at a press conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow, the Saudi foreign minister said the Kingdom is putting forward diplomatic solutions to avoid further suffering for Yemen and its people, and will not hesitate to support what serves the interests of Yemen and the region. He highlighted that the path of diplomacy for dealing with the Houthis remains open.
Prince Faisal added that the Houthis prefer to put their narrow personal interests ahead of Yemen’s interests, while the country’s legitimate government has provided an opportunity to negotiate with them responsibly. He described their latest escalation as part of their pattern of provocation.
The limits of Saudi Arabia’s patience
Dr. Abdulaziz Sager, chairman of the Jeddah-based Gulf Research Center, said Yemen’s legitimate government is fulfilling its responsibilities in confronting Houthi attacks targeting civilians and vital infrastructure across the country. He added that the government has worked to mobilize its capabilities and resources, and consolidate its ranks, particularly at the military level.
“The Kingdom will not tolerate any attacks against citizens, residents or vital facilities on its territory, and that its patience has limits,” Sager said. He expects Riyadh to respond “firmly and decisively against the sources of fire, in a manner proportionate to the scale and intensity of the attacks,” citing recent developments in Iraq.
He added that the Houthis had misread Saudi patience, saying that “they do not adhere to reason or logic and continue to receive instructions.” He said that the group had been given several opportunities over the past years but failed to make use of them.
A more decisive phase
Yemeni writer Saleh Al-Baidani said the latest developments point to “a shift from managing and containing escalation toward a more decisive approach focused on deterrence.”
He told Asharq Al-Awsat: “The Kingdom has provided ample opportunities for de-escalation and a political settlement, but the Houthis misread this restraint, treating it as a permanent limitation on Saudi action rather than a calculated political choice that could be reassessed as circumstances evolve.”
He added that the recent attacks on Saudi territory and vital facilities have elevated the threat to a level that makes the previous approach increasingly difficult to sustain. Al-Baidani said: “When the Houthis evolve from a party to the Yemeni crisis into a regional pressure tool more directly linked to Iran’s calculations and its wider confrontation in the region, the approach to dealing with them inevitably changes.”
According to Al-Baidani, the escalation is no longer linked solely to the Yemeni file, but has come to affect Saudi national security, the security of the Red Sea, energy supplies and the safety of international maritime corridors.
Saudi-Yemeni coordination
The Yemeni writer highlighted that coordination between Saudi Arabia and the legitimate government has entered a different phase compared to previous years, whether at the political, military or security levels.
He added: “The Kingdom appears more aware of the importance of having a Yemeni partner capable of managing the confrontation on the ground, while the Yemeni government realizes that any serious move against the Houthis requires a regional umbrella and political, military and economic support.”
Al-Baidani concluded that the success of the next phase remains contingent on the ability of the Yemeni side to unify military and political decision-making, and to transform multiple forces and fronts from a point of weakness into a source of pressure on the Houthis.
He added: “If that is achieved, we may not be facing a fleeting military round, but rather an attempt to reshape the balance of power that has settled over the past years.”
On Tuesday, Yemeni government forces expanded the scope of their field advance on a number of fronts, managing to liberate the Al-Yatama area in the Khabb wa ash-Sha’af district of Al-Jawf Governorate, northeast of Sanaa, a day after recapturing the Al-Labanat area in the same governorate. This came in parallel with the launch of a large-scale military operation in Al-Bayda Governorate, southeast of Sanaa, and the continuation of clashes on the western coast and west of Taiz, on the sixth day since the start of the Houthi escalation.
The advance comes at a time when government forces have begun, over the past few days, to shift from containing Houthi ground attacks to regaining the initiative on several axes, capitalizing on the group’s retreat from some positions, while army units, resistance forces and the Giants Brigades continue their operations on more than one front.
EW YORK: Aryna Sabalenka kept alive her hopes for a third straight US Open championship by fighting off Linda Noskova 7-6 (1), 3-6, 7-6 (10-7) on Tuesday in a thrilling quarterfinal matchup of major champions.
Sabalenka finished off the match with a second-serve ace to turn back the Wimbledon champion and reach the semifinals in Flushing Meadows for the sixth straight year.
Sabalenka — who needed to win to maintain the No. 1 ranking — will face either No. 3 Jessica Pegula or No. 26 Emma Navarro on Thursday in the semifinals.
Noskova, the No. 6 seed, won her first major title at the All England Club and narrowly missed becoming the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to follow a title on the grass by reaching the final four on the hardcourts of New York.
LONDON: Israeli forces demolished a home on Tuesday that belonged to a Palestinian family in the nomadic hamlet of Khirbet Khalla Al-Dabaa, located in Masafer Yatta, south of the occupied West Bank.
Fourteen members of the Mohammad Ali Dabbaba family lost their home when Israeli authorities demolished their 200-sq.-meter residence, constructed from tin and stone, according to the Palestine News Agency.
Forces also filled a crucial water well for the Bedouin community, destroyed electricity networks, damaged several water tanks, and uprooted 15 trees. Additionally, Israeli forces demolished a residential cave belonging to Abdullah Dabbaba, which housed six people.
Israeli authorities have issued demolition notices for 14 inhabited caves and several homes in Khirbet Khalla Al-Dabaa, the report added.
Masafer Yatta consists of nearly 15 Palestinian hamlets located in the southern West Bank; Khirbet Khalla Al-Dabaa is one of them. Israeli forces and settlers regularly invade the area in an effort to evict its total population of 1,150 residents, half of whom are children. Since the 1980s, the area has been designated a military zone by Israel.
In late August, armed Israeli settlers detained a 22-year-old British activist in the village of Umm Al-Kheir in Masafer Yatta, who was part of a “protective presence” initiative intended to support Palestinian residents. He was deported from Israel last week.
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Three MEPs have agreed in a report to be published Wednesday to tighten the requirements for foreign direct investment in the EU, restricting access to the European market for Chinese investors, Euronews has learned.
The report comes from the European Parliament’s rapporteurs on the proposed Industrial Accelerator Act, MEPs Christophe Grudler (Renew), Pierre Jouvet (S&D) and MEP Anna Cavazzini (The Greens). The act was presented by the European Commission last March and creates a European preference on the EU market to favour products made in Europe, in a move to protect strategic sectors of EU industry from foreign competition.
However, China has threatened several times to retaliate against the legislation, which is still under discussion, putting access to the EU market at the top of the agenda in some ongoing trade negotiations with Brussels.
The exclusive details of the report obtained by Euronews show that in sectors where China is dominant, among them electric vehicles, solar panels, critical raw materials and batteries, the three rapporteurs want to impose strict requirements on investments exceeding €50 million, a threshold lower than the €100 million initially proposed by the Commission.
For such investments, any investor from a country holding 40% of the sector’s global market share will have to meet six conditions: own no more than 49% of the share capital of the EU target; make the investment through a joint venture with an EU entity; transfer technologies to Europeans; ensure that at least 60% of the workforce consists of EU workers; reinvest at least 1% of annual revenue into research and development within the EU; and source at least 30% of manufacturing inputs from within the bloc.
The rapporteurs have added to the Commission’s proposal investments in other sectors such as wind power, electrolysers and heat pumps, making it necessary for the investor to meet at least three of the conditions above.
The report also restricts access to public procurement and public support schemes to products made in the 27 EU member states across areas such as clean technologies, cars and energy-intensive industries.
The Commission will only be allowed to extend the scope to products coming from non-EU countries under strict conditions, such as the application of reciprocal access for Europeans to foreign countries’ public procurement.
This follows intense lobbying from EU foreign partners, which want their products to be recognised as “made in Europe” to access the EU market. Many, such as the United Kingdom, argued that EU value chains were too intertwined with their own market to exclude them.
The report by the three MEPs will now have to be adopted by EU lawmakers before discussions start with EU member states on this future legislation.
However, it sends a signal to China that Europeans will not give up in their attempt to protect the EU market from China’s aggressive industrial policy.
RIYADH: Saudi-Russian cooperation has proven vital in supporting the stability of global energy markets and achieving a balance that serves the interests of both producers and consumers, the Kingdom’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.
During a visit to Moscow, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the partnership between Riyadh and Moscow contributes to sustainable global economic growth and fosters cooperation across the economic, trade, and investment sectors.
Prince Faisal met with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov who said that the minister’s visit offers a valuable opportunity to discuss Russian-Saudi relations which are witnessing year-on-year development across the trade, economic, investment, cultural, and humanitarian spheres.
Lavrov also affirmed his country’s sincere desire to contribute to efforts aimed at de-escalating the situation in the region and addressing regional issues.
The two ministers emphasized the importance of supporting the diplomatic path to resolve current regional and international challenges — including the Palestinian cause and the situation in Yemen.
They underscored the necessity of ensuring the security and freedom of navigation in international waterways, particularly the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab El-Mandab Strait.
Both sides affirmed their aspiration to advance Saudi-Russian relations which were established a hundred years ago.
Accession talks accelerate in Brussels as Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, and Montenegro push for faster integration into the EU.
This article appears in the September 2026 issue of Global Finance Magazine.
On July 14, the European Union took its most consequential step toward enlargement in two decades by holding four separate accession conferences in a single day and advancing membership talks with Ukraine, Moldova, Albania, and Montenegro.
European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos (pictured) called it “Super Tuesday.” The EU’s last great expansion, when 10 mostly Central European states joined in 2004, redrew the continent. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007, and Croatia in 2013. After that, the bloc shrank when the U.K. left the EU.
Traditionally, the EU treated enlargement as a distant reward for would-be members rather than as an active geopolitical strategy. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China’s expanding influence, and uncertainty about the U.S. commitment to Europe and NATO have shifted Brussels’ calculus. Rather than an economic transaction in which new participants open their markets in exchange for development funds, membership is now framed as a mutually beneficial bargain over border defense, energy security, and global leverage.
Still, candidates must meet strict reform benchmarks, and none of the new crop are likely to join before 2028. Negotiations cover 35 policy areas, or chapters, grouped into six clusters ranging from fundamentals and rule of law to the green agenda, and all 27 existing members must approve the opening and closing of each chapter: a veto power that has long paralyzed the process.
European Council President António Costa has urged lifting unanimity requirements for early accession stages, but this would require unanimous agreement, the very hurdle it is meant to remove. A proposal floated by French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz would partially sidestep this barrier by giving candidates gradual, milestone-based access to the EU single market — covering goods, services, energy and regulatory standards — years before full membership.
Regardless, economic convergence is already outpacing political integration. Over the past two decades, the Central and Eastern European economies have grown at more than twice the rate of the EU-15, the wealthier Western and Northern European nations that were members before the big Eastern enlargement in 2004.
Some of those newcomers, according to Eurostat data, have since become the bloc’s growth engine. In 2025, the Czech Republic expanded by 2.6%, Latvia by 2.1%, and Lithuania by 2.9%. Poland, the frontrunner, grew by 3.6% and now ranks sixth in the EU by nominal gross domestic product, accounting for 4.9% of its total output, ahead of countries like Sweden, Ireland, and Austria.
It is not just EU officials betting that a second eastward enlargement will strengthen the bloc. Investors have taken notice, too. According to a report by accounting firm Forvis Mazars, mergers and acquisitions in the region hit a record €42.5 billion in 2025, up 36% year-on-year.
Risks loom, however.
Demographic decline, labor shortages, and exposure to geopolitical shocks could undercut the push toward enlargement. Enlargement also carries political costs, including further impeding an already sluggish decision-making process and straining a common budget under pressure from rising defense spending. Ultimately, expansion has come to seem a matter not of if but when. The eastern frontier region is no longer just the EU’s lower-cost manufacturing base, but where the bloc’s defense, industrial policy, and future growth will be decided.
Luca Ventura is a contributing writer based in Italy.
RIYADH: With cricket’s popularity rising across Saudi Arabia,, cricket academies and clubs are rapidly expanding across the Kingdom in race to nurture young talent and grow the sport at a competitive level.
The spread of one of the world’s most popular sports is part of the mission to promote a healthy and active lifestyle under the Saudi Vision 2030’s Quality of Life program.
Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation, the official governing body in the Kingdom, supported by the Ministry of Sports and Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee, has been mandated to increase physical activity levels by 40 percent over the decade.
But cricket’s popularity at grass roots remains mostly organic, particularly among many expats from across Asia who have made Saudi Arabia their home on recent years and decades.
The SACF, under the auspices of the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports, was established in 2020, with Prince Saud bin Mishal Al-Saud as chairman of the federation.
Interestingly, Foreign Missions and International Schools especially from South Asia are also promoting the game offering training sessions at the schools and organizing inter-school tournaments.
Speaking to Arab News Ambassador of India to Saudi Arabia Vipul said: ” I am very pleased to see the growing popularity of Cricket in Saudi Arabia. Cricket has become an integral part of India’s sporting and cultural tradition. The inclusion of Cricket in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games is a positive development towards its global visibility. We would like to see more and more countries embracing cricket.”
“The launch of the Indian Premier League (IPL) has further boosted its worldwide popularity of the game. A significant development in this respect was the IPL 2025 mega auction held on November 24 and 25, 2024, at the Abadi Al Johar Arena in Jeddah. There have also been several other engagements on cricket between our two countries, reflecting the growing interest in forging a long-term partnership in the development of cricket in Saudi Arabia,” added the ambassador.
He further said: “The large and vibrant Indian community in Saudi Arabia has also played an important role in promoting cricket. We are proud that some players representing the Saudi national cricket team come from the Indian community residing in the Kingdom. The Embassy of India will continue to engage with the Saudi Arabian Cricket Federation and other stakeholders to promote greater cooperation and exchanges in the field of cricket. Such engagements will add yet another dimension to the already strong and multifaceted people-to-people partnership between India and Saudi Arabia.”
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador Omar Lebbe Ameer Ajwad told Arab News: “Cricket is part of the Sri Lankan community’s life in Saudi Arabia. There are more than 80 community cricket clubs across the Kingdom. Cricket is also part of Sri Lanka international school’s extracurricular activities. School organizes inter-house cricket matches during the annual sports meet.”
“To mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia, I have initiated a tradition of hosting an annual Cricket Tournament – Sri Lanka Ambassador’s Cup, among Sri Lankan community cricket clubs in the Kingdom,” said the envoy.
“Sri Lanka stands ready and would be pleased to support Saudi Arabia’s initiative to promote and develop cricket in the Kingdom,” he added.
The Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh last year held a cricket tournament to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between the south Asian nation and Saudi Arabia. Ajwad told Arab News that the plan is to make it an annual event.
“We are planning to bring some big names from Sri Lankan cricket in the final of the tournament in the future, in order to promote cricket among the Sri Lankan community in Saudi Arabia as well as promote cricket ties with the Kingdom.”
He added that since Saudi Arabia also has a cricket federation, the plan is to “explore opportunities” for cooperation in the game.
Cricket academies in different Saudi cities have taken major leaps in recent years.
Abdul Waheed, former captain and a star batsman of the Saudi national cricket team, who is associated with Arkan Sports Cricket Academy in Riyadh told Arab News: “Our academy aspires to be the grassroots engine of cricket development in Riyadh region. We aim for those being trained at our academy to practice and play good cricket and one day represent Saudi Arabia at the international level.”
MIND Cricket Academy, Jubail chairman Nasser Al Qashanain, told Arab News: “MIND Academy was established in 2019 in Jubail, with founder director Murali Krishnan, and co-founder R N Balasubramaniam. A home-grown academy is building a pipeline of young talent that its founders hope will one day represent the Kingdom on the world stage.”
“In December 2023, the academy decided the time had come to give cricket aspirants in the region a proper platform. Team Mind Academy launched the Mind Academy Cricket Club (MACC) — a dedicated home for young cricketers in Jubail, built on three pillars: dedication, discipline, and determination,” he said.
“From the outset, the academy prioritized coaching quality over quick wins. It brought in R. Aravind and C. Santosh, two India-based trainers certified by the International Cricket Council (ICC) to lay the technical groundwork for its young players,” he added.
The club’s growth was further accelerated by the support of its strategic partner and MIND Academy chairman Al Qashanain, whose backing helped Mind Academy Cricket Club secure a closer working relationship with the SACF.
“That partnership has since become a cornerstone of the club’s development, with SACF providing its coaches access to ICC Level 1 coaching certification and offering exceptional support throughout the journey — support that has been instrumental in establishing the club’s presence in Jubail,” said Al Qashanain.
“The SACF’s support for Mind Academy has been exceptional throughout their journey. Mind Academy and SACF signed a landmark MoU to jointly develop cricket at the grassroots level— a testament to the trust and confidence the federation places in the academy’s vision. Through SACF, the club’s coaching staff gained access to ICC Level 1 coaching courses held at the Sea Sports Center Fanateer in Jubail from 28–31 May 2025. The course was organized by the Jubail Cricket Association under the supervision of SACF and conducted by ICC/SACF-qualified tutors, with the proud support of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu,” he said.
The ICC certification has been a game-changer for the club, ensuring that every young cricketer at Mind Academy receives training that meets the highest international standards.
Mind Academy also forged a partnership with the Gary Kirsten Cricket Academy, opening the door for its coaching staff to progress through ICC coaching certification — from Level 1 all the way to Level 4 — under the mentorship of Gary Kirsten, a prominent former South African cricketer and elite coach who famously guided India to victory in the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
“That blend of local passion and international know-how has become the hallmark of Mind Academy,” said Al Qashanain.
IPL’s Delhi Capitals Academy have also expanded with a new Saudi Arabia centre. The academy has strengthened its international footprint with the launch of its first academy through a new center in Jeddah.
Jazim Haris, head of operations, JSC Sports, told Arab News: “Delhi Capitals Cricket Academy has made its landmark Middle East debut with the launch of its first centre in Jeddah in partnership with JSC Sports Centre, the city’s first international cricket academy.”
“Designed for boys and girls aged 5 to 17, the academy combines ICC certified coaching with high-performance bowling machines, advanced performance monitoring and international player exchange programmes,” he said.
“The partnership is further strengthened by JSC Sports Centre’s exclusive state-of-the-art cricket stadium near Naseem, Jeddah featuring three playing surfaces, analytical cameras and cutting-edgee batting technology to track and creating a global pathway for emerging talent and give families a premier space to connect, socialise and enjoy their children’s progress,” he added.
Haris further said: “The launch expands Delhi Capitals academy footprint to five countries seven centres in India and six overseas across the UK, Canada, the US and Saudi Arabia marking a significant step in developing Jeddah’s cricket talent pipeline and supporting the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 sporting ambitions.”
He added: “Our strong association with SACF has fostered our vision to pioneer cricket academies in Jeddah.”
Aqil Azad, who runs cricket academies with grounds facilities – Tamimi Cricket Club, and Arabian Cricket Academy – told Arab News: “We have about 40 children being trained at our academies by certified coaches, amid structured program, and a clear focus on the fundamentals of the game, delivered to children and teenagers who might otherwise have had little access to formal cricket coaching in the Eastern Province.”
“We provide structured training programs for aspiring cricketers across all age groups in Dammam and Al Khobar. From intensive net practice and field drills to competitive match-day scenarios, the academy provides a complete cricketing guideline for young players in the region. The club also actively engages with local schools, introducing cricket to young students and scouting talent at the grassroots level,” he added.
Manzar Khan, president of the cricket academy in Yanbu – Yanbu Al Sinaiyah Cricket Association – told Arab News: ” The academy was established in 1979 and is one of the oldest and prestigious cricket associations in the Kingdom. Home to one of the most beautiful and first-ever grassy cricket grounds in Saudi Arabia, setting a benchmark for cricket infrastructure in the Kingdom.”
“At the academy we provide state-of-the-art night cricket facilities equipped with 8 towering floodlight poles, enabling high-quality day and night matches. We practice in 4 cricket grounds to accommodate simultaneous matches and practice sessions,” he added.
There are about 25 registered teams competing under the YACA banner, representing diverse communities and strong cricketing talent in Yanbu, he informed.
Officially affiliated with the SACF, YACA organizes three to four major tournaments per season, ensuring continuous competitive cricket throughout the year, and is recognized as a key contributor to the development of cricket in the Kingdom.
DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Faisal bin Farhan, said on Tuesday the Kingdom will not hesitate to defend itself against Houthi attacks.
Speaking from Russia’s capital, the minister said the Kingdom would use all available means to protect its interests.
“Houthi militia resorts to violence whenever it finds itself in a difficult situation. The Houthis are trying to export their domestic problems inside Yemen to Saudi Arabia,” he added.
The minister said the door for diplomacy was open for the Houthis but that they resorted to violence whenever they found themselves in a difficult situation.
Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said Houthi attacks on civilian targets in Saudi Arabia were unacceptable.
“Security and freedom of navigation in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait must be ensured,” he added.
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Europe’s answer to OpenAI has just become considerably better funded.
The Paris-based company Mistral AI announced its Series D on Tuesday, three years after being seeded, with the memory chip giant Samsung leading alongside the EU-backed Scaleup Europe Fund, managed by EQT, and existing investor PSG Equity.
The step up is steep.
Mistral was valued at €11.7 billion in 2025 after a €1.7 billion Series C led by Dutch chipmaker ASML, meaning the company has almost doubled its valuation in a year.
Much of the money is going into concrete rather than code. CEO Arthur Mensch announced the funding would build out data centres and computing capacity that Mistral can rent to others but that will also ensure autonomy.
“Long term, the plan is to fully rely on capacity that we are building ourselves, and so that means that the amount of compute that we own is going to grow around 100% in the next five years,” Mensch said, adding that the company would train “bigger and faster models.”
Mistral is already spending €4 billion on data centres across France and Europe, with one facility running outside Paris and another under construction in Sweden.
It raised further debt financing in March for the same purpose, and Microsoft has agreed to fund capacity from its European network, built around thousands of Nvidia chips.
Both Microsoft and Nvidia are also investors in Mistral, with the latter also adding exposure in this funding round.
The company says more than 125 enterprises across 20 countries use its technology, and Mistral projects it will pass a billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2026.
Despite the news, Europe continues to critically lag behind in the global AI race.
Mistral’s valuation sits far below OpenAI and Anthropic, and Europe’s wider AI sector remains a fraction of the American one, with enterprise adoption across the bloc running at around 13.5%.
Other European contenders exist but are smaller.
Germany’s Aleph Alpha focuses on government and regulated industries rather than competing at the frontier, while Helsing has grown quickly in defence applications, and Switzerland’s Apertus offers fully open models and training data.
Brussels is trying to close the gap.
The InvestAI initiative carries a €200 billion headline commitment, and in July the Commission opened tenders for up to seven AI gigafactories, aiming to unlock more than €30 billion in investment, though those sites are not expected to operate until next year or 2028.
Thirteen smaller AI factories are already being built across seven EU countries.
The AI Act became applicable in August, but its toughest obligations were pushed back by the digital omnibus agreed in May, with high-risk rules now landing in December 2027 and August 2028, a delay Brussels framed as making the policy more innovation-friendly.
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UniCredit (UNCRY) said Tuesday it received approval from the European Central Bank to apply the “Danish Compromise” to its insurance holdings, a move that is expected to provide a meaningful lift to its capital position.
The Danish Compromise allows banks
A few weeks ago, non-chavista politician Antonio Ecarri and American economist Steve Hanke managed to unearth one of Venezuela’s longstanding and unsettling debates: whether the country’s economy should be formally dollarized. After decades of economic hardship brought by repeated devaluations, hyperinflation and scarcity, the country’s monetary regime is heavily fragmented.
De facto dollarization rules most of the transactions, while the bolívar, crypto stablecoins, euros and the currencies of neighboring countries split the rest of the monetary market share used to maneuver through Venezuela’s complex economy. With the US pushing for the country’s economic stabilization to increase trust in foreign investors, the fragmented monetary ecosystem can be detrimental to the process made so far.
Venezuela’s economic outlook has improved after Maduro’s capture and since the US took control over Delcy’s decisions. Mainly because of a sharp recovery of oil exports to the US recovered sharply; by April, these were up 192% from their 2025 average. The energy sector is spearheading the recovery while attempting to partially compensate for the devastation caused by the twin earthquakes. GDP growth projections for Venezuela are forecasted at 5.8%, almost four times the country’s 2025 growth (1.5%). Yet the threat of inflation and instability compounds investors’ worries about entering the country. After repeated announcements by the interim regime promising to close the exchange gap and tackle inflation, their actions show otherwise.
Delcy continues to erode the bolívar by stimulating the money printer needed to feed chavismo’s patronage system. Exchange rate controls, which have long incentivized corruption and inflation, are still there. On the dollar side, credit loans and transactions remain “officially” forbidden, creating an artificial tax on USD transactions and fear amongst businesses who can be punished for their use.
Eliminating inflation would require abolishing all existing exchange rates and creating a new one based on an agreed technocratic approach.
The result of this unaddressed monetary disaster has been a persistent rise in inflation, which increased by 6.1% in July, bringing year-on-year inflation to 576% and 2026 cumulative inflation to 175.5%.
This is not the first time the call for dollarization has been in the spotlight in Venezuela. Nonetheless, US control over the country’s economy may increase the possibility of it becoming a reality. While dollarizing might be an effective measure to rapidly generate trust and reduce inflation, it raises important questions about its implementation under the interim regime and the future of Venezuela’s monetary sovereignty. Similar to Trump’s oil deal or the post-earthquake reconstruction, all discussions and actions are taking place behind the scenes, sidelining the very population that will have to deal with its consequences.
Discussions regarding dollarization have primarily focused on three benefits: eliminating inflation, forcing fiscal discipline, and eradicating corruption. However, as long as those managing the dollarization process are the same ones who have guided Venezuela to the worst economic crisis in the region’s history, the result might be equally as bad but with a different set of consequences.
Hanke asserts that no preexisting institutional, fiscal or political conditions are necessary for dollarization to be successful. However, this process requires the willingness of all three areas to move forward. Eliminating inflation would require abolishing all existing exchange rates and creating a new one based on an agreed technocratic approach. Currently, there is no incentive for anyone in the interim regime’s leadership to converge the exchange rates.
A struggling or failed dollarization plan could further erode trust while leaving the country even more vulnerable to external shocks.
The exchange rate differentials have not been an economic policy mistake overlooked by chavismo. These have been an integral part of chavismo’s strategy to undermine and replace old political elites with select, loyal ones. Long ago, they became crucial to maintain the status quo. There are no signs in favour of change in this area, as economist Juan Comella argued in May. Doing so would compromise the structure that keeps her in power.
A struggling or failed dollarization plan—which forces the government to take on further debt, experience severe cash shortages and fundamentally depend on its commodity exports—could further erode trust while leaving the country even more vulnerable to external shocks, such as a sudden plunge in oil prices. The neoliberal constraints posed by dollarization, like an extremely limited Central Bank to aid the government, will not fix decades of institutional erosion, but only try to avoid it while possibly unleashing a fresh round of obstacles that menace an already fragile economic recovery.
Decades of monetary policy failures made the population skeptical of the bolívar. For long enough, the system and institutions have incentivised and even rewarded the wrong people to take advantage of its vulnerabilities at the expense of the population and evading any personal consequences.
It is certainly not the paper where the bolívar is printed the element that corrupts people or destroys the economy: it is the system behind it. It is not far-fetched to think of a plan that grants the Venezuelan Central Bank complete independence, empowering the correct people to safeguard the economy from the risks of inflation while maintaining government spending in line and preparing for external shocks.
Relinquishing our monetary sovereignty would be a mistake in a world where governments actively participate and spend to tackle modern challenges, including AI and natural disaster relief. China’s rise as a global power has been, in part, a consequence of decades of industrial policy under intense government intervention. The US and EU have started to catch up in recent years. The US has done so with the CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Act under Biden and, most recently, with the Trump administration imposing protectionist tariffs and taking equity stakes in major companies with the aim of safeguarding US interests in key sectors. The EU aims to increase competitiveness under the Clean Industrial Deal and the Industrial Accelerator Act. If Venezuelan leaders seek to move past the country’s commodity dependence, climb up in the global value chain, become competitive and diversify the economy, industrial policy will be crucial. Dollarization would compromise those goals.
Starting a dollarization process under chavista rule is similar to entrusting the reconstruction of Venezuela’s oil sector to a businessman who contributed to the destruction of the country’s electricity grid.
Foreign investment will be the driver of short- and medium-term recovery and growth for Venezuela. However, industrial policy will be crucial to guide the long-term objectives of the country. For this, Venezuela needs the bolívar, even if it’s in an open and competitive currency market where the people decide which currency earns their trust.
The Ecarri-Hanke duo surprised public opinion not only because of their proposal but also because of the odd pairing. Ecarri represents the efforts of Venezuelan politicians with limited legitimacy to enter the spheres of influence in Washington, and also chavismo’s ability to neutralize them. Hanke only views Venezuela as part of a larger plan to promote and deepen the use of the dollar internationally, in a global context that increasingly mistrusts the US currency and is hedging against it.
Ecarri is the result of a system that empowers the wrong people. Hanke represents the oversight of the reality on the ground and the impact Venezuelans will have to absorb. Both display the same shortcomings of Venezuela’s monetary institutions over the past decades. Their proposal simply tries to hide the sun with one finger instead of addressing the historical root causes of Venezuela’s monetary instability.
Starting a dollarization process under chavista rule is similar to entrusting the reconstruction of Venezuela’s oil sector to a businessman who contributed to the destruction of the country’s electricity grid. Policy should depart from both trauma-instilled calls for complete dollarization and a patriotic defense of the bolívar. Instead, it should focus on economic stability and our capacity to meet the challenges of tomorrow.