Residents waiting at a bus stop under a large Turkish flag in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sunday, April 30, 2023. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Turkey’s central bank on Thursday hiked its key interest rate by another 250 basis points to 45%. The hike to the benchmark one-week repo rate was in line with economists’ expectations. … Read more
Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday ratified Sweden’s NATO membership after months of deadlock. Ankara: Turkey’s parliament on Tuesday ratified Sweden’s NATO membership after more than a year of delays that upset Western efforts to show resolve in the face of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Lawmakers voted 287-55 in favour of the Nordic nation’s bid to become … Read more
The Israel-Hamas war is affecting travel across the Middle East and beyond. International arrivals to the region grew in the fourth quarter of 2023 — mainly owing to an increase in visitors to Saudi Arabia — to a level that matched 2019 numbers, according to the travel data company ForwardKeys. But it’s a far cry … Read more
Cars stranded in a flash flood caused by a monsoonal thunderstorm on Sept. 1, 2023, in Thermal, California. David Mcnew | Getty Images News | Getty Images Destructive thunderstorms in North America and Europe and a series of devastating earthquakes last year cost the world around $250 billion in damages, according to a new report … Read more
Sweden edged closer toward joining NATO on Tuesday after the Turkish parliament’s foreign affairs committee greenlighted a protocol for the Nordic country’s membership in the military alliance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan dropped his objection to Sweden’s membership during a NATO summit in July, but it took him several months to send the bill to … Read more
