Terrorism

Israel-Egypt peace treaty has stood the test of time over 45 years: expert explains its significance

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 15, 2024

The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979 to end hostilities and normalise relations between them, turns 45 on 26 March. The Conversation Africa asked Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, who studies Egyptian politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict, for his insights on the peace deal and the key challenging moments since it was signed.When and why did the peace treaty come into force?It marked the first treaty of its kind between an Arab country and Israel.

Key Points: 


The peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, signed in 1979 to end hostilities and normalise relations between them, turns 45 on 26 March. The Conversation Africa asked Ofir Winter, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, who studies Egyptian politics and the Arab-Israeli conflict, for his insights on the peace deal and the key challenging moments since it was signed.

When and why did the peace treaty come into force?

  • It marked the first treaty of its kind between an Arab country and Israel.
  • Since then, five more Arab countries – Jordan, the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan – have made peace with Israel.
  • The peace deal, and its consequences, are viewed as having reshaped the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict for the better.
  • And it wanted to strengthen its ties with the United States, by being at peace with its ally, Israel.

What challenges has the treaty faced?

  • Since then, the Israeli embassy has left its previous permanent residence and operates on a reduced scale and with a lower profile.
  • Read more:
    Hamas-Israeli conflict: what's at stake for Egypt

    However, past crises did not escalate to the point of suspending the peace agreement.

  • Egypt also benefits from intelligence cooperation with Israel in the fight against terrorism in Sinai.

Gaza conflict and the peace treaty

  • Even before the current war, Egypt had long been concerned about alleged Israeli plots to resolve the Gaza issue at its expense.
  • According to the military appendix of the 1979 peace agreement, areas C and D near the Egyptian-Israeli border are subject to demilitarisation.
  • A mechanism of military coordination between the Israeli and Egyptian defence forces monitors the parties’ commitments in the peace agreement.
  • Even amid the tensions stemming from the war in Gaza, Egypt has no intention of abrogating its peace treaty with Israel.
  • These include recalling the Egyptian ambassador from Tel Aviv, before resorting to more severe actions like suspending the peace treaty or some of its aspects, which could be harmful for both sides.


Ofir Winter does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Eversource Energy Announces Pathway to Fully Exit its Offshore Wind Investments Pursuant to Agreement with Global Infrastructure Partners to Sell Revolution Wind and South Fork Wind Projects

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Eversource Energy (NYSE: ES) (“Eversource”) today announced it has executed a definitive agreement to sell its 50 percent ownership share in South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).

Key Points: 
  • Eversource Energy (NYSE: ES) (“Eversource”) today announced it has executed a definitive agreement to sell its 50 percent ownership share in South Fork Wind and Revolution Wind to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP).
  • The agreement covers Eversource’s 50 percent share in the 132-megawatt South Fork Wind project and the 704-megawatt Revolution Wind project.
  • Eversource is expected to enter into a separate construction management agreement as a contractor to Revolution Wind to complete the onshore work that is currently underway.
  • Eversource will maintain its previously announced tax equity investment in South Fork Wind.

Financial sanctions: banks’ reactions depend on their location, research reveals

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

However, our latest research shows that even universally adopted sanctions can throw a spanner into the works of the global financial system for want of being enforced everywhere.

Key Points: 
  • However, our latest research shows that even universally adopted sanctions can throw a spanner into the works of the global financial system for want of being enforced everywhere.
  • Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, much ink has been spilled over the sanctions on Russia.
  • And since the late 1980s, there has been a shift toward imposing financial sanctions, which involve freezing assets and investments.

How sanctions impact lending

  • Sanctions will impose extra compliance costs on a bank, as it must fulfill reporting requirements and undertake due diligence checks to ensure its transactions are legal.
  • The bank will also have to factor in the litigation costs and the reputational risk involved if its due diligence should fail.
  • We wanted to understand how these costs and risks alter lending decisions.

Location, location, location

  • The data show how much each bank in Germany was lending in foreign countries from 2002 to 2015.
  • Importantly, German banks are also required to record how much their foreign affiliates (branches and subsidiaries outside Germany) are lending in each country.

The importance of the Financial Action Task Force

  • Founded in 1989, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), also known by its French name, Groupe d’action financière (GAFI), is an intergovernmental organisation that sets international standards to allow national authorities to go after illicit funds linked to money laundering, terrorism and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system.
  • Our analysis showed that German bank affiliates located outside the FATF increased their positions in sanctioned countries by an average of 95% relative to German banks inside the FATF.

Levelling the playing field

  • One key takeaway from this is that, regardless of whether it is the litigation risks or compliance costs that ultimately drive the decision to lend in sanctioned countries (or not), you don’t have a level playing field.
  • Banks in locations with weaker standards for the integrity of the financial system seem to find lending in sanctioned countries more attractive.
  • To guarantee a level playing field, it is also vital to make sure all countries effectively comply with these sanctions.


Grant of EUR 5000 from the French National Research Agency (ANR), “Investissements d’Avenir” (LabEx
Ecodec/ANR-11-LABX-0047). Deutsche Bundesbank (German central bank) provided on-site access to the database External Position Report and free accommodation on the premises of the central bank during the author’s research visits.

Call For Nominations as The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life Inaugurates The Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

The Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award is named in memory of the Atlanta native who fulfilled her dream of aliyah, at age eighteen, as a combat-trained soldier specializing in fighting terrorism.

Key Points: 
  • The Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award is named in memory of the Atlanta native who fulfilled her dream of aliyah, at age eighteen, as a combat-trained soldier specializing in fighting terrorism.
  • We can think of no one who exemplifies Jewish Pride more than Rose Lubin," said Sara Bloom, Vice Chair of the Steinhardt Foundation.
  • The Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award is a cash award intended to recognize and promote an individual whose work in Jewish life exemplifies leadership, innovation, and creativity through founding a program, initiative, or organization that champions the Pillars of Jewish Pride described in Michael Steinhardt's 2022 book, Jewish Pride.
  • Individuals nominated for the Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award must have created programs that exhibit and promote Jewish Peoplehood, Jewish Excellence, or Jewish Joy and their initiatives must demonstrate measurable impact, scalability, and financial sustainability.

First Trust Advisors L.P. Announces Distribution for First Trust Income Opportunities ETF

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

FTA and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. ("FTP"), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately-held companies that provide a variety of investment services.

Key Points: 
  • FTA and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. ("FTP"), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately-held companies that provide a variety of investment services.
  • An investment in a Fund involves risks similar to those of investing in any portfolio of equity securities traded on exchanges.
  • The risks of investing in each Fund are spelled out in its prospectus, shareholder report, and other regulatory filings.
  • However, unlike mutual funds, shares may only be redeemed directly from a fund by authorized participants in very large creation/redemption units.

First Trust Specialty Finance and Financial Opportunities Fund Declares its Quarterly Distribution of $0.0825 Per Share

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

First Trust Specialty Finance and Financial Opportunities Fund (the "Fund") (NYSE: FGB) has declared the Fund's regularly scheduled quarterly distribution of $0.0825 per share.

Key Points: 
  • First Trust Specialty Finance and Financial Opportunities Fund (the "Fund") (NYSE: FGB) has declared the Fund's regularly scheduled quarterly distribution of $0.0825 per share.
  • The Fund is a diversified, closed-end management investment company that seeks to provide a high level of current income.
  • First Trust Advisors L.P. ("FTA") is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the Fund's investment advisor.
  • FTA and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. ("FTP"), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately-held companies that provide a variety of investment services.

Macquarie/First Trust Global Infrastructure/Utilities Dividend & Income Fund Declares its Quarterly Distribution of $0.20 Per Share

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

Macquarie/First Trust Global Infrastructure/Utilities Dividend & Income Fund (the "Fund") (NYSE: MFD) has declared the Fund's regularly scheduled quarterly distribution of $0.20 per share.

Key Points: 
  • Macquarie/First Trust Global Infrastructure/Utilities Dividend & Income Fund (the "Fund") (NYSE: MFD) has declared the Fund's regularly scheduled quarterly distribution of $0.20 per share.
  • FTA and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. ("FTP"), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately-held companies that provide a variety of investment services.
  • FTP is also a distributor of mutual fund shares and exchange-traded fund creation units.
  • The Fund principally invests in a global portfolio of infrastructure stocks in a range of currencies and senior secured loans.

‘America is the mother of terrorism’: why the Houthis’ new slogan is important for understanding the Middle East

Retrieved on: 
Monday, February 12, 2024

As their attacks have intensified, the group’s slogan (or sarkha, meaning “scream”) has also gained notoriety.

Key Points: 
  • As their attacks have intensified, the group’s slogan (or sarkha, meaning “scream”) has also gained notoriety.
  • Banners bearing the sarkha dot the streets in areas of Yemen under Houthi control and are brandished by supporters at their rallies.
  • Read more:
    Why US strikes will only embolden the Houthis, not stop their attacks on ships in the Red Sea

Terror groups as a tool of the state

  • Some experts argue this may create more “terrorists” than it kills.
  • However, there are other layers to these slogans that are less intuitively understood by a Western audience.
  • For many in the region, groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State function, in part, as “tools” that Western-backed authoritarian leaders use to maintain their power.


releasedal-Qaeda prisoners so they could regroup
facilitated al-Qaeda attacks against local and foreign targets
misdirected US strikes to kill political opponents rather than al-Qaeda leaders.

  • As a result, many Yemenis wouldn’t view al-Qaeda or Islamic State as being completely separate from those in charge of the country.
  • In the West, these groups are framed as rebels seeking to overturn the state.
  • But across the region, many believe these relationships defy simple categories like “state versus insurgent” or “friend versus enemy” because terror groups can be both at once.

Why the West’s policies are backfiring

  • When I asked residents about the this, they appeared to see the statement as a banal declaration of fact.
  • (Like the banners bearing the sarkha, the murals used a red barbed-wire font for the word “America”.)
  • Of course, the violence the Houthis use to sustain their own power is an irony that should not be lost.
  • Even so, their messaging taps into widespread views about the drivers of regional violence that some Western observers have long dismissed.


Sarah G. Phillips receives funding from the Australian Research Council (FT200100539). She is a Non-Resident Fellow with the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies (Yemen).

The macroeconomic effects of global supply chain reorientation

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, February 10, 2024
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We analyse the macroeconomic

Key Points: 
    • We analyse the macroeconomic
      effects of supply chain reorientation through localisation policies, using a global dynamic
      general equilibrium model.
    • While arguments about comparative advantage, the potential forgone benefits of international specialisation and industry- and product-specific disruptions are familiar, there is less
      analysis on the macroeconomic effects of supply chain changes resulting from localisation policies.
    • The large sensitivity of the global economy to the recent supply chain shocks suggests that
      the international trade reconfiguration implied by localisation policies could also have sizable
      impacts on key macroeconomic variables such as output, employment and inflation.
    • Thus, localisation focuses on the
      goods in our model most closely related to global supply chains.
    • Retaliation also attenuates any positive effects from
      reshoring on output and implies a reduction in the volume of overall international trade.
    • This finding calls for limiting the scope of reshoring, such as by focusing on vital goods that are
      most susceptible to supply chain disruptions.
    • Either that, or the economic costs are considered a worthwhile trade-off for an increase
      in security of supply, for example.
    • While arguments about comparative advantage, the potential forgone benefits of international specialisation and industry- and product-specific disruptions are familiar, there is less
      analysis on the macroeconomic effects of supply chain changes resulting from localisation policies.
    • Recent supply chain shocks have had large effects, with disruptions in 2021 estimated
      to have reduced euro area GDP by around two percent and doubled the rate of manufacturing producer inflation (Celasun et al., 2022).
    • To analyse this issue, we simulate a (partial) reshoring of production back to Europe in
      a global dynamic general equilibrium framework.
    • Thus,
      localisation focuses on the goods in our model most closely related to global supply chains.3 We
      model reshoring through a direct change to the export goods? production-function parameters.
    • Since reshoring
      effectively shortens the supply chain, the sum of markups along the chain falls.
    • This means that imports that are at the end of the supply chain (i.e.
    • In particular, our work relates to papers examining the potential for countries to reduce
      their exposure to global supply chains.
    • (2021) demonstrate that reduced reliance on foreign inputs does not mitigate pandemicinduced contractions in labour supply.
    • (2021) find no evidence of a relationship
      between global value chain integration and macroeconomic volatility.
    • This dynamic, along with factors such as natural disasters, climate-change
      induced volatility and terrorism mean that supply chain disruptions could be a new normal
      (Grossman et al., 2021).
    • Our work contributes to the literature providing dynamic general equilibrium analyses of
      protectionist policies, in particular those using global macroeconomic models to quantify trade
      policy changes.
    • (2008) analyse the effect of a rise in protectionism in response
      to rising global trade imbalances.
    • Linde? and Pescatori (2019) find that although the macroeconomic costs of a
      trade war are substantial, a fully symmetric retaliation is the best response.
    • (2020) consider a rich input-output structure and demonstrate that closer integration amplifies
      the adverse effects of protectionist trade policies.
    • Several recent studies have also examined the economic effects of a global trade fragmentation.
    • First, we modify a dynamic general
      equilibrium model of the global economy in order to analyse the transmission of localisation
      policies.
    • This allows for a comprehensive treatment of cross-border macroeconomic interdependences and spillovers between the different regions.
    • 4

      There is, however, substantial cross-country heterogeneity in terms of impact, with small open economies
      (SOEs) reliant on global supply chains more affected.

    • ECB Working Paper Series No 2903

      7

      Second, we are able to assess both long-run effects and the transition dynamics of localisation
      policies.

    • Our model contains a detailed monetary block and captures inflation dynamics, which is a key
      concern for supply chain reorientation.
    • Overall, our paper contains a careful analysis of the key aspects of the localisation debate,
      including effects of localisation on domestic competition and efficiency.
    • Section 2 provides a brief overview of the model, the modifications to examine
      global supply chain reorientation, some key details on the calibration and a brief discussion of
      the nature of our exercise.
    • (2020) for discussions of the relative strengths and weaknesses of
      trade and macroeconomic models in assessing large economic shocks.
    • 2.1

      Supply chain reorientation

      Our analysis focuses on imported inputs used to produce goods for export, as the introduction
      of localisation policies is in response to recent disruptions to global supply chains.

    • Since reshoring
      effectively shortens the supply chain, the sum of markups along the chain falls.
    • Further to
      these effects, engagement with global firms provides an opportunity for knowledge spillovers to
      local firms (Criscuolo et al., 2017).
    • This finding calls for limiting the scope of reshoring, such as by focusing on vital goods that are
      most susceptible to supply chain disruptions.
    • (B12)

      Adjusting the share of local inputs in export goods, of course, affects prices and quantities all
      along the supply chain.

Certain DWS Closed-End Funds Declare Monthly Distributions

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 8, 2024

Although the fund seeks income that is exempt from federal income taxes, a portion of the fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state and local taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.

Key Points: 
  • Although the fund seeks income that is exempt from federal income taxes, a portion of the fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state and local taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.
  • Although the fund seeks income that is exempt from federal income taxes, a portion of the fund’s distributions may be subject to federal, state and local taxes, including the alternative minimum tax.
  • Closed-end funds, unlike open-end funds, are not continuously offered.
  • The price of a fund’s shares is determined by a number of factors, several of which are beyond the control of the fund.