Economy
Latvia floats 300% tariff on grain arriving from Russia, Belarus
Latvia’s government announced plans to impose a tariff of up to staggering 300% on grain arriving from Russia and Belarus, according to the country’s Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs on Monday.
Officials in Latvia and neighboring Lithuania last week said they considered ending shipments of Russian grain through their ports after Moscow stepped up the transits in response to attacks by Ukraine on its Baltic ports.
Russian exporters are moving grain via Latvia, an EU and NATO member, to other markets, analysts and traders have said.
A ban or high tariffs could cut off a key alternative at a time when Black Sea and Azov Sea routes have been paralyzed by Ukrainian drone strikes.
Russia exported 46.3 million metric tons of grain via ports in the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea in the last exporting season covering the period from July 2025 to June this year, which accounted for 90% of total Russian seaborne grain exports, industry data shows.
Canada confirmed Monday that retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports will take effect early Tuesday, marking a fresh escalation in the deepening trade dispute between the neighboring countries.
Canada’s Finance Ministry confirmed the measures in response to an enquiry from dpa.
Tariffs of up to 50% will apply to U.S. imports worth C$27.6 billion ($20 billion), including steel and aluminium products, household appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper products, and electronics.
The move follows the breakdown of trade talks between Washington and Ottawa.
In August, the United States imposed tariffs of up to 50% on around $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, including ice hockey sticks, furniture, honey and wine, prompting Canada to announce retaliatory measures.
The U.S. embargo on Cuba resulted in a “record” loss of over $8 billion for the battered island between March last year and February this year, according to a government report presented Monday as the country is going through a severe economic crisis.
Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since 1962, with President Donald Trump piling on pressure on top of the decades-old measure since early this year.
The damages set out in the report exceed last year’s peak by 7%, said Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
The figure “does not include the damage from the energy blockade” imposed by Washington in January “nor the damage from secondary sanctions” imposed on Cuban entities in May, the minister added.
“The blockade does not punish a government; it punishes the daily life of a people in all its aspects,” Rodriguez said.
Havana blames the crisis on an array of U.S.-imposed punitive measures, while Washington attributes the hardship to poor internal management.
Living conditions on the island are severe, with residents enduring regular rolling blackouts and chronic food and fuel shortages on a daily basis.
Rodriguez pointed to an increase in infant mortality, from four per 1,000 births in 2018 to 9.9 in 2025, as evidence of deteriorating standards.
He ruled out declaring a humanitarian crisis, however, and praised what he called Cuban solidarity in the face of difficulty.
The minister said Cuban authorities remain in contact with the U.S. State Department but ruled out any normalization of ties.
Cuba remains willing to continue engaging in dialogue “despite the lack of progress” and “lack of willingness” on the part of the U.S., he said.
Adidas Arabia, a regional branch of the German sportswear giant Adidas issued on Monday a written apology after an advertising campaign featuring a former Israeli soldier sparked an online backlash and renewed calls for a boycott of the brand.
The company featured Shalev Biton, who lost his left leg after being wounded while serving in the Israeli army in 2021, in a campaign promoting its Single Shoe service.
“We recognize that an image used in a recent local campaign has raised concerns and strong reactions,” Adidas Arabia said in a statement.
“It was never our intent in any way to cause offense, and we apologize to everyone affected by this,” it said, adding they were treating the reactions “with the utmost seriousness.”
Biton was one of 11 disabled athletes featured on posters displayed at Adidas stores in Israel.
Pro-Palestinian activists criticized the decision to include a former Israeli soldier in a campaign centered on amputees, contrasting the promotion with the thousands of Palestinians who have lost limbs during Israel’s war on Gaza.
According to estimates published in May by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gaza has recorded more than 5,000 traumatic limb amputations and over 22,000 major extremity injuries since October 2023. Up to a quarter of those with life-changing injuries were children.
Türkiye said on Monday it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Danish nuclear tech developer Copenhagen Atomics to explore the use of the country’s thorium resources in next-generation atomic technologies.
The agreement was signed by the Türkiye Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency (TENMAK), an affiliated institution of the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry.
The cooperation will focus on developing technologies that can use thorium, including the domestic production of thorium compounds, the ministry said in a statement.
Thorium is heavily researched as a cleaner, safer alternative to uranium in nuclear reactors. It is said to be roughly three to four times more abundant in the Earth’s crust than uranium.
The agreement also aims to bring Turkish industrial and technology companies, as well as researchers, into efforts to develop high-value nuclear technologies based on the country’s thorium resources.
One of the main areas of work will be research and development and project design for producing thorium in Türkiye in a form suitable for use in next-generation nuclear reactors, particularly molten salt reactors.
The parties aim to produce thorium compounds domestically that meet nuclear fuel standards and eventually establish Türkiye as an internationally competitive supplier in the field, the ministry said.
Copenhagen Atomics is conducting research and development on molten salt reactors, a fourth-generation reactor technology that can enable thorium to be used in the nuclear fuel cycle.
The Danish company is focused on a modular molten salt reactor concept called “Onion Core.” Under the agreement with TENMAK, it will assess the technology in terms of Türkiye’s research infrastructure, human resources and industrial capabilities.
Could eliminate dependence on foreign fuel
Türkiye seeks to expand nuclear generation alongside renewable energy as it pursues its net-zero emissions goals.
In addition to the four-reactor Akkuyu, its first nuclear plant under construction, the government plans to build large-scale power stations in Sinop on the Black Sea coast and in the Thrace region.
Türkiye targets 15 gigawatts (GW) of conventional nuclear capacity, while also aiming to install 5 GW of small modular reactor (SMR) capacity by 2050. Akkuyu will have a combined installed capacity of 4,800 MW.
Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said SMRs, alongside large-scale reactors, were developing rapidly as part of what he described as a new era for nuclear energy.
“Türkiye is also engaged in significant activities in this area, with many projects progressing in parallel,” Bayraktar said, adding that investors and public institutions were working together on several projects.
He said government incentives had generated significant interest in SMR technologies and that Türkiye was examining how different technologies could be brought into the country.
“Over the next few years, it will become clear which of these technologies can advance further and actually be commercialized,” Bayraktar said.
He said the TENMAK-Copenhagen Atomics agreement was distinctive because thorium was a prominent fuel option in the Danish company’s SMR technology.
“Thorium is very abundant in our country, and a technology based on it is therefore particularly important because we believe it could eliminate dependence on foreign fuel,” Bayraktar said.
Thorium-based fuel cycles are said to produce less long-lived radioactive waste, cannot suffer traditional meltdowns, and are harder to weaponize.
Bayraktar added that he hoped the cooperation would produce results and that the work could eventually lead to a commercial product.
“The fact that it involves a different fuel, particularly thorium, makes this cooperation important,” Bayraktar said.
Türkiye’s electricity demand increased at an average annual rate of around 5% between 2005 and 2024, marking the strongest growth among member countries of the International Energy Agency (IEA), according to a report.
The expansion has been driven mainly by economic activity, particularly in the industrial and services sectors, the IEA said in its Türkiye Energy Policy Review.
Electricity demand is expected to continue growing in the coming years, with Türkiye’s National Energy Plan projecting electricity consumption to reach 510 terawatt-hours by 2035.
The IEA said grids, energy storage, system flexibility and demand-side management will become increasingly critical as renewable capacity expands.
Residential electricity consumption increased 14% from 2023 to 2024, driven by greater use of air conditioning and electrical appliances, as well as the growing electrification of heating and cooking in some parts of the country.
Peak electricity demand also reached a record 59.5 gigawatts (GW) during a heat wave in July 2025.
Renewables to play greater role
Renewable energy sources are expected to play a greater role in meeting the country’s growing electricity demand.
Renewables accounted for 43% of Türkiye’s total electricity generation in 2025, with the share targeted to rise to 55% by 2035.
Solar power capacity is projected to increase from around 20 GW in 2024 to 77 GW by 2035, while wind capacity is expected to rise from 13 GW to 43.1 GW.
The IEA said this rapid expansion will require greater flexibility across the electricity system, alongside investments in grids and energy storage.
Smart grid road map
Türkiye’s energy transition will require not only new generation capacity but also investments to ensure electricity can be reliably delivered and available when demand is high.
In this context, Türkiye’s smart grid road map envisages creating a total of 35 GW of flexible resources by 2035.
Of this total, 10 GW will come from rooftop solar and storage, 10 GW from large-scale energy storage, 5 GW from grid management and 10 GW from demand-side management.
Türkiye also plans to significantly increase its electricity interconnection capacity with neighboring countries by 2035.
The country aims to triple its electricity export capacity to 6.75 GW and increase its import capacity fivefold to 6.6 GW. It also intends to build 14,700 kilometers of high-voltage direct-current transmission lines.
The IEA said Türkiye needs to accelerate investments in grids, energy storage and other sources of flexibility to meet rising electricity demand.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said investments in grids, flexibility and energy efficiency, as Türkiye’s energy demand continues to grow rapidly, would strengthen energy security, support economic competitiveness and reduce the country’s exposure to volatility in international fuel prices.
Cross-border traffic and trade between Syria and Türkiye continued to surge in the first eight months of 2026, with more than 1.23 million travelers and 46,480 commercial trucks passing through the Öncüpınar (Bab al-Salama) border crossing.
That’s according to Syria’s General Authority for Land and Sea Ports and Customs, which said the trucks, moving in both directions, carried nearly 1.1 million metric tons of goods over the period.
Meanwhile, more than 73,000 Syrians reportedly returned voluntarily to Syria through the crossing during the first eight months of the year.
The increased movement comes as Syria and Türkiye seek to strengthen border infrastructure and facilitate trade and transportation, enhancing the role of border crossings in boosting economic ties and opening overland trade routes linking Türkiye and Syria with Arab markets.
On the Turkish side, modernization and expansion work is underway at border crossings with Syria to accommodate growing passenger, truck and cargo traffic. The Öncüpınar Customs Gate in Kilis province, opposite Syria’s Bab al-Salama crossing, is among the main crossings undergoing development to increase capacity and improve the flow of traffic.
According to information reported by Anadolu Agency (AA), citing Türkiye’s Trade Ministry, modernization work is continuing at Öncüpınar, while plans are being prepared to build a new service building there. Development work is also underway at several other border crossings with Syria, including Cilvegözü, Akçakale, Çobanbey and Karkamış.
The upgrades come amid growing trade and transportation between Türkiye and Syria. Bilateral trade increased by about 45% following the political change in Syria, reaching $3.75 billion in 2025, while trade rose 16% in the first seven months of 2026 compared with the same period a year earlier.
Turkish authorities are working to increase the capacity of border crossings to accommodate the growing traffic. According to the Trade Ministry, construction and project-planning work is underway at several crossings, including the expansion of truck yards, the addition of lanes, the construction of service facilities and the upgrading of infrastructure.
At Öncüpınar, a project is being prepared to build a new service building. At Çobanbey, plans call for expanding the crossing’s area from about 21,000 square meters to 71,000 square meters, while Karkamış is set to expand from 15,000 square meters to 90,000 square meters, alongside the construction of permanent service facilities.
Data from the Öncüpınar truck tracking system show that daily freight traffic remains active. On Sept. 7, the system showed that processing had reached truck No. 610.
The developments are part of growing customs cooperation between the two countries. This April, Türkiye and Syria began work under a joint customs committee mechanism aimed at improving coordination, facilitating border and trade procedures, reducing unloading and reloading operations, and strengthening mechanisms for the direct delivery of goods.
In July, the Trade Ministry said developing transportation corridors through Syria would strengthen the region’s role in international trade, particularly by connecting Türkiye with Arab and Gulf markets through Syrian territory.
Türkiye and Syria are also working to reopen additional border crossings, including the Nusaybin-Qamishli crossing, which is expected to resume operations before the end of the year.
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