Russia Factory Activity Grows at Fastest Pace in Almost Six Years

Daily Mail, Dec 1, 2022

"Despite a further sharp extension to supplier delivery times amid logistics challenges and disruptions, firms expanded their input buying at the fastest pace since January 2017,"

Meanwhile business confidence, supported by hopes for new orders, surged to its second-highest since April 2019.

Somebody's been on a gold-buying bender. It's not clear who — or why.

Marketplace, November 20, 2022

Somebody or something out there has been buying a lot of gold — 400 tons of it in the third quarter, more than $20 billion worth at today's price.

That's double the amount that changed hands in the second quarter, and more than quadruple that of the first quarter, all according to the World Gold Council.

Central banks bought a quarter of it, but the rest? Nobody knows. Maybe some country or countries. But who? And why?

The EU has a spy problem — here's why it's so difficult to catch them

Politico, Dec 1, 2022

Brussels, as nearly everyone knows, is packed with spies.

They're hovering at the bar at the think tank networking event. They're raising their hand in the press room at European Union briefings.

They're listening in — if a 2019 warning to staff from the European External Action Service is to be believed — at the bars and restaurants near the European Commission's headquarters.

That the walls have ears has long been a fact of Brussels life. But the fight against espionage is receiving renewed attention as the EU's spy-catchers redouble their efforts in the face of Russian hostility, Chinese spying and the return of Great Power geopolitics.