“After weeks of reluctance, tanks on their way to Ukraine…”

After weeks of reluctance, Germany has agreed to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine, in what Kyiv hopes will be a game-changer on the battlefield.

Germany to send scores of tanks to help Ukraine fight Russian invasion

The United States said on Wednesday it would supply Ukraine with 31 of its most advanced battle tanks after Germany broke a taboo with a similar announcement, moves hailed by Kyiv as a potential turning point in its battle to repel Russia’s invasion.

The U.S. decision to deliver M1 Abrams tanks helped break a diplomatic logjam with Germany over how best to help Kyiv in its war with Russia, which hours earlier had condemned Berlin’s decision to provide Leopard 2 tanks as a dangerous provocation.

Washington had been wary of the idea of deploying the difficult-to-maintain Abrams but had to change tack to persuade Germany to send its more easily operated Leopard 2 tanks – the workhorse of NATO armies across Europe – to Ukraine.

President Joe Biden announced the U.S decision in remarks at the White House, saying the tanks were needed to help the Ukrainians “improve their ability to maneuver in open terrain.”

Biden thanked Germany for its move and listed further military hardware that NATO allies and other European countries were supplying. “Germany has really stepped up,” he said.

“The expectation on the part of Russia is we’re going to break up,” Biden said of the United States and European allies. “But we are fully, totally and thoroughly united.”

Kyiv has been calling for months for Western main battle tanks that would give its forces greater firepower, protection and mobility to break through long-static front lines and potentially reclaim occupied territory in the east and south.

Senior Biden administration officials said it would take some months for the Abrams to be delivered and described the move as providing for Ukraine’s long-term defence.

“There is no offensive threat to Russia (itself),” Biden said.

Gas prices fall, inflation eases. Can the eurozone escape a recession?

It was the writing ominously scratched on the wall: the eurozone was heading for a deep and calamitous recession, blamed on Russia’s war in Ukraine, a devastating energy crisis and soaring inflation.

The fateful forecast, made as soon as Russian tanks illegally crossed the border into Ukraine in late February 2022, topped headlines around the continent and unleashed a sentiment of profound pessimism among consumers and investors, who gradually resigned themselves to the third economic contraction in less than three years.

But then, as the year turned, something shifted, and a glimmer of optimism found its way through the gloom.

The “news has become much more positive in the last few weeks,” said European Central Bank Christine Lagarde while attending the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.

“It’s not a brilliant year but it is a lot better than what we had feared.”

The sudden mood change across the bloc is attributed to a series of positive developments that materialised around the turn of the year.

EU eyes $100/barrel cap on Russian premium oil products, $45 on discounted

The European Commission is proposing that the EU set a $100 per barrel price cap on premium Russian oil products like diesel and a $45 per barrel cap on discounted products like fuel oil, European Union officials said on Thursday.

The proposal was sent on Thursday to EU governments, whose representatives will discuss it at a meeting on Friday afternoon, with a view to a deal before the price cap on imported Russian oil products is to come into force on Feb 5th, in line with an agreement by G7 countries.

The price cap on Russian oil products follows a $60 per barrel cap imposed on Russian crude on Dec. 5th as G7 countries and the 27-nation EU as a whole seek to limit Russia’s revenue from its oil exports without disrupting world supply.

The price caps imposed by the G7 — the United States, Canada, Japan, Britain, Italy, France and Germany — and the EU are to curb Moscow’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine.

Both price caps work by prohibiting Western insurance and shipping companies from insuring or carrying cargoes of Russian crude and oil products unless they were bought at or below the set price cap.

The $60 per barrel limit on crude is now up for review as the market price has been just below the cap.

What does the future hold for smart contracts?

Contracts are going digital. Certain online asset transactions are already using blockchain – based software as their primary mode of contractual agreement.

Smart contracts are self-executing. Using pre-determined, programmed parameters, they regulate a party’s adherence to the contract’s terms and may even perform actions in case of a breach, such as automatically charging a late payment fee for missed deadlines. No third-party intermediary is required because the terms are written directly into lines of code across a distributed, decentralised blockchain network.

At present, the average consumer would correctly assume that smart contracts are commonly used to regulate blockchain transactions. However, they can also be used in any transactions in which automation is possible. For example, smart contracts can be used in a real-estate deal in which the buy and sell obligations can be automated once the buyer pays the property value to the seller. In trade finance, they can be used to effect cross-border payments and implement automated escrow accounts.

They can also help governments improve departmental transparency and efficiency. Banks can also avail of smart contracts for liability payments, digital identification, automatic payments, and stock splits and dividends dealings.

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