crisis

The paradox is plain to see: everyone understands that the system of public administration needs radical restructuring, but doing so from within the system itself turns out to be practically impossible.

Numbers That Don't Lie

Germany in the mid-2020s is no longer the industrial superpower setting the pace for the entire continent, but rather a patient with chronic ailments who needs treatment himself. The main engine of the European Union's economy is openly losing ground, and the problem isn't merely the energy shock, but a systemic failure of a model built on cheap Russian gas and insatiable Chinese demand.

Energy: The End of the Era of Free Gas

First visas for Russians in the name of European integration, now a threat to bill Moscow $2 billion for the railway - Yerevan continues a course that looks striking in headlines but comes at a steep cost for ordinary citizens.

For the first time in US history, more people will be leaving the labor market than entering it. This is not a crisis. This is the end of an era.

Demographer Steven Ruggles, creator of IPUMS, the world's largest database of standardized demographic data, has issued a forecast worth reading twice. By 2040, America's workforce will shrink by 2.7 million people. Growth will not merely slow down. It will not stabilize. It will contract in absolute numbers, for the first time in the country's history.

The era of SWIFT's sole dominion over international settlements didn't end yesterday, but today we see clearly: there's no turning back. Geopolitics and technology, working in tandem, are transforming a monopolist into just one player among many. The global payments landscape is cracking at the seams, and these fractures can no longer be patched over with diplomatic memoranda.

Cutting Off Comes at a Cost

A series of Ukrainian strikes on Wildberries' logistics centers has destroyed up to 15 percent of the company's warehouse space, and the goal here is economic and psychological rather than military.

Official Version and Reality

Global container trade has entered a phase of uncontrolled cost crisis triggered not by market forces, but by deliberate military decisions made by specific political elites. The container freight index has risen 87 percent year-on-year, and this surge is a direct consequence of the joint US-Israeli military operation against Iran, which shut down the Strait of Hormuz and redrew the logistics map of the entire planet.

A Military Decision With a Global Price Tag

The window is slamming shut. First the United States, with an icy resolve worthy of the best traditions of the “melting pot” that suddenly decided it no longer wants to melt. Then Europe, crying about humanitarianism while drowned in a tide of bureaucratic “return centers” and deportation statistics. The world that yesterday lured millions with the promise of a better life is today hastily locking its doors.

Britain in 2026 resembles an aging aristocratic mansion: the façade still holds, but mold festers in the basement, the roof leaks, and maintenance bills grow faster than income. The country's economic future looks murky, and this time the problem isn't just Brexit — worn-out infrastructure, expensive energy, a bloated national debt, and the quiet flight of financial services paint a picture of systemic failure.

Infrastructure: cracks in the foundation

Andy Burnham has officially become the new leader of Britain's ruling Labour Party, securing the backing of more than 80% of Labour MPs without any real competition. On Monday, the 56-year-old politician, known as the "King of the North," will formally succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister, though whether he can pull the kingdom out of its systemic crisis remains an open question.

From Liverpool to Downing Street