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Silent prayer vigils, cautiously worded protest banners and T-shirts pleading for neighbourhoods to be spared — Hanoi residents are showing rare public opposition to a massive redevelopment scheme that could displace hundreds of thousands. Authorities
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One of Sir Keir Starmer’s best performances was the speech he gave to signal the premature end of his premiership. So often caricatured as an unemotional technocrat, the moment of his resignation revealed a more
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Alex Ross, The IndependentNorthern leaders have accused Brexit leaders of breaking promises after new figures revealed London is receiving more money than any other UK region.A key part of the campaign to leave the EU
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It’s so confusing that people talk about the present weather, saying it’s so hot. Some say yesterday was hotter than today, and the debate about the hot weather continues until the end of the summer
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One of India’s largest environmental film funds — a $126,000 initiative that will provide grants to three documentary projects — has been launched by the All Living Things Environmental Film Festival (ALT EFF).Backed by Rohini
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Is anyone truly surprised that a number of countries that have fought wars for centuries, have different religions and different directions, haven’t come to a complete agreement yet again, despite President stating 39+ times that
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Ten years ago, Britain chose to abandon its membership of the world’s largest single market. The watershed decision triggered a period of political instability and economic upheaval that is still being felt a decade later. Up to two thirds of British voters, across all party lines, believe Britain’s decision to leave the European Union in 2016 has had a negative impact on the country, a poll by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) showed on Sunday. The UK economy is marked by persistently weak per-capita GDP growth, elevated inflation compared to Western Europe, slumping business investment, and a diminished lead in financial services exports, though areas like fintech and life sciences still show strength. Brexit was meant to “take back control” of immigration, free up more money for the country’s health service, and foster prosperity with new trade deals. But the UK economy has largely failed to experience a post-Brexit boost after upending ties with its largest trading partner. While shocks such as the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 hit growth globally, Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom estimates that by 2025, Brexit had reduced the UK’s GDP by 6%-8%, according to a CNBC report. The “Vote Leave” campaign pledged to take back control of the UK’s migration policy, but its departure from the bloc had unintended consequences. The UK now has net emigration with EU countries, but migration from non-EU states surged amid work supply shortages, an increase in international students, and emergency visa schemes extended to countries such as Ukraine. On the other hand, fewer Europeans are moving to the UK, and net migration from the bloc has gone into reverse. One of the clearest indicators of the impact of Brexit is the value of sterling, which crashed following the vote and is yet to regain its pre-referendum highs against both the euro and the dollar. The pound has typically operated around 10% below its June 2016 value, according to Convera. Convera has found that GBP/EUR has averaged €1.16 since the referendum, down from €1.27 in the decade before, with sterling spending 98% of trading since the Brexit vote below €1.20. The performance divergence between the large-cap, multinational FTSE 100 and the more domestically-oriented FTSE 250 also paints a muted picture for London’s capital markets. To be sure, some of the worst-case predictions did not materialise, such as an immediate recession or a housing market crash. Britain remains second only to the US as a destination for foreign capital, hosting more than £12tn ($16tn) in foreign direct investment, portfolio investment and cross-border deposits at the end of 2025 according to IMF data cited by Barclays. Yet economists broadly agree that leaving the EU has weighed on the UK’s economic growth potential – with estimates ranging from 2% to as much as 8% of foregone output. Andy Burnham, the overwhelming frontrunner to succeed outgoing leader Keir Starmer, has promised not to “re-run” Brexit arguments, as he said he was not proposing the UK considers rejoining the European Union. But the UK is experiencing a form of “divorce regret” with surveys showing most Britons now believe leaving the European Union was a mistake. Would Britain really want back into the club as it is now? The political situation in the island nation, with the hard-right, anti-EU Reform UK party running high in the polls, calls for caution. European nations are wary too, of weaving closer ties now — only to possibly have to unravel them later.
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Tehran stands to gain billions of dollars from a 60-day reprieve from US sanctions announced on Monday, but unwinding more than four decades of restrictions poses legal, political and commercial challenges that could take years. At issue is whether an interim US deal with Iran can translate into lasting economic relief, given the complexity of dismantling a sanctions regime that spans US law, international measures and private-sector risk concerns. The United Nations, the US and the European Union have imposed sanctions and trade embargoes and have frozen assets since the late 1970s over Iran’s nuclear program, human rights violations and support for militant groups around the region. Under a 14-point memorandum of understanding signed by the US and Iran last week, Washington is to start abolishing all types of sanctions using a schedule to be forged in a final deal within 60 days, a period that can be extended. On Monday, the US Treasury issued a temporary general license allowing the production, delivery and sale of crude oil and petrochemical and petroleum products of Iranian origin through August 21. Removing the remaining sanctions - if it happens - would represent a stark change in US policy toward the Middle East, which has long focused on curbing Iran’s influence and using financial pressure to weaken its theocratic government. It would also be difficult, requiring executive action for some measures, approval by Congress for others and close coordination with the UN and other countries that have imposed their own sanctions. Companies, wary after decades of restrictions, could also blunt the impact. “You have this tangled nest of sanctions, and it’s not just executive orders, it’s congressional sanctions,” said Juan Zarate, deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism under former President George W Bush. CONGRESS IS SKEPTICALWashington first sanctioned Iran in 1979, after revolutionary students seized the US embassy in Tehran, holding diplomats hostage. Since then, Congress has passed half a dozen sanctions laws and presidents have issued executive orders over Iran’s nuclear program and its support for groups the US deems terrorist organizations. Since early 2025, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed sanctions on more than 1,000 people, vessels and aircraft, according to Treasury data. Delisting thousands of entities designated for sanctions would take OFAC at least a year, said Jeremy Paner, a partner at law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed and a former US sanctions official. President Donald Trump can rescind executive orders issued on Iran, but some measures - including sanctions on Hamas and Hezbollah - are mandated by law and will have to be removed or amended by Congress, where the interim deal has already sparked sharp public criticism from his fellow Republican lawmakers. Undoing 40 years of sanctions would be difficult, added Matt Zweig, managing director of policy at FDD Action, the lobbying arm of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Any attempt to comprehensively remove layer upon layer of sanctions will be like peeling back an onion - exposing the administration - not just to legal complexities but political risks,” said Zweig, a former aide on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The licence issued on Monday could be worth up to $3bn for Iran over two months, by some estimates. That could swell to “at least tens of billions of dollars” if made permanent, erasing a discount on Iranian oil, allowing Tehran to sell to additional buyers beyond China, and increasing exports, said Edward Fishman, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. China now buys about 90% of Iranian oil, despite the sanctions. The new licence is broader than the one issued in March, calling for inclusion of not just oil and petroleum products, but also banking, insurance and transportation related to the oil trade, giving Tehran quicker access to its revenues. “There are a number of thorny issues involved,” said Stephanie Connor, a former OFAC official now a partner with law firm Holland & Knight, adding that lifting sanctions could mean funds flowing to groups the US considers a threat. “Are we really going to let money start flowing to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps?” she asked, referring to the powerful paramilitary force that the U.S. has designated a foreign terrorist organization. WARY COMPANIESBanks, oil firms and insurers will face evolving regulations, tougher due diligence and exposure to sanctions-evasion risks tied to Iran links with countries such as China, North Korea and Russia. They also remain subject to separate sanctions from Britain, the UN, the EU and others. “We’ve kind of beaten the markets up with the risk of doing business with or through Iran, so you can’t just flip a switch and say, ‘Oh, now it’s okay to do business with Iran,’” Zarate said. Companies that deal with Iran would still face lawsuits from victims of attacks, who can sue investors and companies for aiding designated groups under the 2016 Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which aides say is unlikely to be repealed. Given such risks, companies may steer clear of working with Iran to escape legal and reputational risk as long as the Iranian government remains in power, said Brett Erickson, principal with Obsidian Risk Advisors. “We’re not going to see massive multi-billion dollar commitments until things are far more cemented and politically stable,” he said. “There’s just a long way to go.”
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“If liberty means anything at all,” wrote George Orwell, in a preface to Animal Farm, “it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” Generations of students have been taught
