Free Republic

Economic consequences of the invasion After losing a relatively modest 4% of GDP to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Ukrainian economy grew at a healthy 3.2% in 2021 and was expected to grow at the same pace in 2022. The sudden Russian invasion upset this forecast. The initial stage of the invasion hit the capital Kiev and ten regions, which jointly account for 55% of pre-war GDP. Ukraine’s GDP shrank by 15.1% in the first quarter of 2022 – the year-on-year decline recorded in March 2022 was a massive 45%. In the second quarter, GDP fell by a staggering...

The European Union (EU) is seeking to reassure Israelis who are concerned about the economic harm caused by the EU’s decision to forbid its member states from cooperating, transferring funds, or giving scholarships or research grants to bodies in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. A senior delegation from the European Union will arrive in Israel early this week to examine ways of preventing damage to Israeli entities operating beyond the 1949 Armistice Lines. …

THERE'VE BEEN SOME developments over the past few days in the case of Professor Mona Baker, director of the Center for Translation and Intercultural Studies at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in England. Turns out she's a native Egyptian, for one thing. Which by itself would be an altogether unremarkable detail--had Professor Baker not recently made herself internationally notorious for a particularly outlandish expression of hostility to . . . um . . . Jewish people. In case you missed it: Sometime around late April, a petition began circulating in British universities calling for a full-scale...