Concrete has been in use for more than two millennia, dating back to when the Romans employed a similar material known as opus caementicium. Its durability, versatility, and ease of transport make it difficult to replace, especially in large infrastructure projects like bridges and tunnels where it is essential. However, the production of concrete has a significant drawback—its manufacturing process is energy-intensive, particularly in the creation of clinker, a key ingredient. The question arises: is it possible to produce a greener, more sustainable version of concrete? Progress in this field is already underway, with both experimental techniques and proven methods offering various ways to reduce emissions. This article examines:
What is clinker
Clinker is a crucial element in cement production, and cement, in turn, is an essential component of concrete. It is produced by heating a precise mixture of raw materials—mainly limestone (calcium carbonate) and clay—at extremely high temperatures, typically between 1,400 and 1,500 degrees Celsius.
During the heating process in a rotary kiln, the raw materials undergo chemical reactions, producing small gray pellets or nodules known as clinker. These nodules contain the primary compounds that give cement its binding characteristics: calcium silicates and aluminates.
Once cooled, clinker is ground into a fine powder and mixed with a small amount of gypsum to create cement. Gypsum controls the cement’s setting time when it is combined with water. The most commonly used cement in construction is Portland cement, derived from this process.
Clinker production is responsible for significant carbon emissions. About one-third of CO₂ emissions stem from the extensive energy consumption during the calcination and grinding processes, while the remaining two-thirds result from the chemical decarbonation of limestone during production.
Three strategies to lower concrete’s carbon footprint
Several methods are currently being implemented to create low-emission green concrete. Alongside recycling initiatives, the following three approaches are considered among the most impactful:
Substitution of clinker with alternative materials. One of the most common solutions involves replacing clinker with materials such as fly ash or blast furnace slag. While this substitution is not complete, it significantly reduces emissions compared to traditional concrete. The complete elimination of clinker is possible through the use of geopolymers, though this technology remains in its early stages.
Functional concretes that absorb carbon dioxide. Research is being conducted into concretes capable of absorbing CO₂ throughout their lifespan. This is achieved through compounds like mineral admixtures, which capture atmospheric carbon dioxide, or by injecting CO₂ into the concrete during production, allowing the gas to be stored within the material.
Concretes using bio-aggregates. The incorporation of organic materials, from agricultural waste to coffee grounds, helps produce lighter concretes with enhanced thermal properties. This innovation reduces the carbon footprint of buildings constructed with these materials.
A green concrete project at the Port of Cádiz
Cádiz, the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe, has long used locally sourced materials such as oyster stone—formed from mollusk shells—in its buildings. Now, an eco-friendly alternative is taking center stage in a major construction project at the city’s port, which once welcomed Phoenician ships from the Mediterranean.
More than 48,000 tons of green concrete will be used to construct the pier at the Port of Cádiz’s new Container Terminal. The material, named ECOPLANET III/A 42.5 N/SRC, cuts CO₂ emissions by 27% by incorporating blast furnace slag, which reduces the amount of clinker required. This concrete not only lowers environmental impact but also enhances durability and reduces the need for maintenance. The massive “kugira” caissons made from this innovative concrete will allow the quay esplanade to double in size to 1,100 square meters in a more sustainable way.
If you are curious about other sustainable building materials beyond green concrete and want to stay updated on the latest innovations in construction technology, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page.
A satelite image of Fordo, one of three Iranian nuclear sites hit by Trump
US President Donald Trump says the American military has completed strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, marking a significant escalation in the ongoing war between Iran and Israel.
“We have completed our very successful attack on the three Nuclear sites in Iran, including Fordow, Natanz, and Esfahan. All planes are now outside of Iran air space,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Trump added that a “full payload of bombs” were dropped on Fordo, an enrichment plant hidden in a remote mountainside that is vital to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Israeli officials say they were in “full coordination” with the US in planning these strikes.
Iran could respond by targeting US military assets in the region. Its officials had earlier warned that they would retaliate and that any US attack risked a regional war.
Here is a breakdown of what we know so far.
How did this start?
Israel launched a surprise attack on dozens of Iranian nuclear and military targets on 13 June. It said its ambition was to dismantle its nuclear programme, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would soon be able to produce a nuclear bomb.
Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are peaceful. In retaliation, Tehran launched hundreds of rockets and drones towards Israel. The two countries have continued exchanging strikes since, in an air war which has now lasted more than a week.
Trump has long said that he is opposed to Iran possessing a nuclear weapon.
In March, US national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard said that while Iran had increased its uranium stockpile to unprecedented levels, it was not building a nuclear weapon – an assessment that Trump recently said was “wrong”.
On the campaign trail, President Trump had criticised past US administrations for engaging in “stupid endless wars” in the Middle East, and he vowed to keep America out of foreign conflicts.
The US and Iran were in nuclear talks at the time of Israel’s surprise attack. Two days ago, President Trump had said he would give Iran two weeks to enter into substantial negotiations before striking – but that timeline turned out to be much, much shorter.
What has the US bombed, and what weapons did it use?
One of the sites the US attacked was a secretive nuclear site called Fordo. It is hidden away in a mountainside south of Tehran, and is believed to be deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel connecting the UK and France.
The uranium enrichment site is considered by experts to be vital to Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Fordo’s depth below the Earth’s surface has made it difficult to reach with Israel’s weaponry. Only the US was considered to have a “bunker buster” bomb strong and large enough to destroy Fordo.
That American bomb is called the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). It weighs 13,000kg (30,000lb), and is able to penetrate about 18m of concrete or 61m of earth before exploding, according to experts.
Fordo tunnels are thought to be 80m to 90m below the surface, so the MOP is not guaranteed to be successful, but it is the only bomb that could come close.
US officials have confirmed to the BBC’s partner CBS News that MOPs were used in the strikes, with two for each target struck.
What is the impact on the ground in Iran?
It is unclear yet what damage the US attack has had on the nuclear enrichment facilities, or whether there are any injuries or casualties.
The deputy political director of Iran’s state broadcaster, Hassan Abedini, said Iran evacuated these three nuclear sites a “while ago”.
Appearing on state-run television, he said Iran “didn’t suffer a major blow because the materials had already been taken out”.
Iran has said that more than 200 people were killed since its latest round of fighting with Israel began, and more than 1,200 were injured.
Meanwhile, Israel is ramping up security in the wake of the US attacks on Iran’s key nuclear sites.
Israel has tightened its public security restrictions across the country, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said.
The upgrade – including a “prohibition on education activities, gatherings, and workplaces” – comes after the US strikes on Iran.
How might Iran retaliate?
Iran has been weakened significantly by Israel’s attacks on its military bases so far, experts say, as well as the dismantling of its regional proxies in Lebanon (Hezbollah), in Syria and in Gaza (Hamas). But Iran is still capable of doing a considerable amount of damage.
Iranian officials warned the US against getting involved, saying it would suffer “irreparable damage” and that it risked an “all-out war” in the region.
It has threatened to target US bases in the region in retaliation. The US operates military sites across at least 19 regions in the Middle East, including in Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Among the most obvious targets for Iran is the US Navy’s 5th Fleet HQ at Mina Salman in Bahrain.
It could also target a critical shipping route known as the Strait of Hormuz, which links the Persian Gulf to the Indian Ocean and through which 30% of the world’s oil supply is transported. It could also attack on other sea routes that risk destabilising global markets.
Iran could also target the assets of nearby countries it perceives to be aiding the US, which risks the war spilling over to the entire region.
Does Trump need approval from Congress to send the US to war?
Under US law, the president does not have the sole power to formally declare war on another country. Only Congress – lawmakers elected in the House of Representatives and the Senate – can.
But the law also states that the president is the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. That means he can deploy US troops and conduct military operations without a formal declaration of war.
For example, Trump’s decision to conduct airstrikes in Syria in 2017 against the Assad regime did not require approval from Congress. Instead, Trump acted unilaterally, citing national security and humanitarian reasons.
Some lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have recently tried to limit Trump’s ability to order US strikes on Iran by pushing a war powers resolution through Congress, though it may take weeks before it is put to a formal vote, and such measures are more symbolic than substantive.
Tech has a tiny presence on the Southeast Asia 500, generating just under 3% of the list’s total revenue. Just one internet company, Sea, sits in the top 20, whereas four such companies sit in the Fortune 500’s top 20.
Yet the region’s most prominent internet platforms all climbed up this year’s rankings. Sea, No. 15, rose five places on this year’s Southeast Asia 500 after growing its revenue by almost 30% year-on-year to reach $16.8 billion.
Singapore’s Grab also rose 24 places, reaching No. 128 on this year’s list, with revenue of $2.8 billion. And fellow ride-hailing platform GoTo, based in Indonesia, jumped 13 spots with sales of $1 billion.
All three platforms can cite one particular business for helping drive recent success: financial services. None of these companies started off as truly fintech companies. Sea focuses on gaming and e-commerce, while Grab and GoTo started off with ride-hailing and delivery. But financial services is proving to be a straightforward–and potentially lucrative–path for the region’s tech companies.
Financial services is a small, but quickly growing, part of Sea’s business. Sea’s digital financial services arm, recently rebranded to Monee, grew by almost 35% last year, reaching $2.4 billion. Sea’s carried that momentum into 2025. Monee’s revenue posted year-on-year growth of 57.6% in the first quarter, reaching $787.1 million.
As of March 31, 2025, consumer and loans principal outstanding stood at $5.8 billion, up 76.5% from the same period a year ago.
Monee launched an e-wallet in 2014, and since then has expanded to services like credit, banking, and insurtech. Most of Sea’s digital financial revenue and operating income is driven by its consumer and small and medium enterprise credit business.
Sea also owns two digital banks: Maribank, which operates in Singapore, and Seabank which operates in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Grab’s financial services was also the ride-hailing platform’s fastest growing business last year, with revenue rising by 44% to reach $253 million. Again, that momentum carried into 2025, with financial services revenue growing by 36% year-on-year in the first quarter.
Like Sea, Grab first started its financial services business with an e-wallet. The company now offers loans to its drivers and merchants partners, and has also expanded into the digital banking space through GXS Bank and GX Bank in Singapore and Malaysia respectively.
Grab’s total loans disbursed as of March 31, 2025 reached $566 million, a 56% increase from the same period the year before.
GoTo has also set up its own financial services app, separate from its flagship ride-hailing service Gojek. GoPay, launched in 2023, uses less mobile data than having to use GoPay through the Gojek app, making it easier to access for those with less powerful phones. GoTo also holds a 22% stake in Bank Jago, an Indonesian digital bank.
Revenue for Goto’s financial services unit almost doubled last year, reaching 3.7 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($230 million).
Why invest in financial services?
Financial services is still a smaller business for Sea, Grab and GoTo when compared to their main services, but it’s a natural progression for these tech companies as they try to serve a population that’s still largely underbanked. Gross margins for financial services are also often higher compared to their main services offered like e-commerce or ride-hailing.
These customers normally present greater risks for traditional financial institutions. But tech platforms argue their data on users, gleaned from their e-commerce or on-demand services, can help build a risk profile that can be used to judge creditworthiness, thereby allowing them to disburse loans to a segment of population that traditional banks may not want to work with.
Digital banks offer another way to acquire more customers. Grab, Sea or GoTo can encourage users of their e-wallet services to open a new account with a digital bank. That, in turn, will give these companies more data, and eventually start offering other services like investment and insurance products.
The Benin Bronzes were artefacts stolen during the UK’s imperial plunder of Benin, modern-day southern Nigeria.
The Netherlands has officially handed back 119 ancient sculptures stolen from the former Nigerian kingdom of Benin more than 120 years ago during the colonial era.
Olugbile Holloway, director-general of Nigeria’s National Commission for Museums and Monuments, said on Saturday that the artefacts were the “embodiments of the spirit and identity of the people from which they were taken from”.
“All we ask of the world is to treat us with fairness, dignity and respect,” he said at a ceremony held at the National Museum in Lagos.
Holloway added that Germany had also agreed to return more than 1,000 additional pieces.
The artefacts, known as the Benin Bronzes, are the latest return of precious history to Africa as pressure increases on Western governments to return items taken during imperialism.
Four of the artefacts are on display in the museum’s courtyard and will remain in the museum’s permanent collection, while the others will be returned to the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II – the traditional ruler of the Kingdom of Benin in southern Nigeria.
The Benin Bronzes include metal and ivory sculptures dating back to the 16th to 18th centuries.
The items were stolen in 1897 when British forces, under the command of Sir Henry Rawson, ransacked the Benin kingdom – modern-day southern Nigeria – and forced Ovonramwen Nogbaisi, the monarch at the time, into a six-month exile.
In 2022, Nigeria formally requested the return of hundreds of objects from museums worldwide. In the same year, about 72 objects were returned from a museum in London, and 31 were returned from Rhode Island in the United States.
MBW’s Key Songs In The Life Of… is a series in which we ask influential music industry figures about the tracks that have — so far — defined their journey and their existence. In the hot seat this time is Scott Cutler, co-CEO of Pulse Music Group. The Key Songs… series is supported by Sony Music Publishing.
Scott Cutler has a bone to pick with us when we drop in at PULSE’s Los Angeles HQ.
Making a long list of songs that have shaped your life is especially serious business, when you’re in the business of writing, publishing, and recording seriously good songs.
Being asked to pick just seven songs? Maddening. Cutler’s desk is strewn with pages of tracks that didn’t make the cut.
Song names with lines drawn through them, others highlighted, underlined, and struck out with notes accompanying them; the extensive longlist chiselled down to the songs that follow below. Not quite seven, but rather seven key phases of Cutler’s life and the sevenish tracks that soundtracked them.
“I don’t even know if I’m following the rules,” he laughs.
“I was in my headphones for like the whole week. I just kept deleting them. I had them all over the place,” explains Pulse Music Group’s CO-CEO of the process.
“My wife was laughing. She thinks it’s part of my OCD, but I don’t think it is. This is part of my love of songs. I started listening to songs deep, right away, like every word.”
It’s this deep analysis of songs that helped Cutler become a hit songwriter and build one of the most respected independent music publishing companies in the business.
Led by fellow Co-CEO Josh Abraham, PULSE clients have contributed to songs that have accumulated more than 100 billion streams via No.1 hits like Miley Cyrus’ Flowers, Harry Styles’ As It Was and Watermelon Sugar, and more.
PULSE has also been enjoying significant recent success with Tommy Richman’s viral hit Million Dollar Baby – a track that has now surpassed 1.2 billion streams on Spotify alone.
But as we discover during our conversation about the key songs that have shaped Cutler’s life and career, this company wasn’t built on algorithms or trend-chasing. It’s built on a lifelong love of songwriting.
“When it comes to songwriting talent, you recognize the people who have something special, you sign them, and you do everything you can to encourage opportunities and put them in the right environments.”
Scott Cutler
Despite painful omissions like John Lennon’s Jealous Guy, and tracks by Billy Joel, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, and even Elliot Smith (“a life-changer for me”), Cutler’s selections offer profound insight into his journey as a songwriter and publisher.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned,” Cutler reflects, “it’s that this is not an algorithmic exercise. When it comes to songwriting talent, you recognize the people who have something special, you sign them, and you do everything you can to encourage opportunities and put them in the right environments.
“But you have to let it happen organically – we’re confident it’s going to happen with the right person, we just don’t know what day it’s going to happen.”
That philosophy has defined Pulse Music Group’s creative positioning in the music business.
“We’ve always been very art-oriented. Josh and I like art, so we’ve always thought of the company as an art gallery,” he explains.
“An art gallery is a two-way street. If you’re an artist, you want to be at the best galleries, and as a gallery, you want the best artists. So you’re both communicating your taste in picking each other.”
For Cutler, it all began with a certain Rolling Stones ballad and a realization that would lead to writing hits recorded by Brenda Russell, Natalie Imbruglia, and more…
1) The Rolling Stones, Angie (1973) / Eagles, Desperado (1973)
I was a very young kid, about seven, and I instantly knew that music was going to be what I did. I wasn’t a sports kid. The first song I learned on the guitar was Angie. I don’t know why I gravitated toward that song, but I did.
I think I picked it because it was melancholy. For some reason, that felt right, like that’s what a song was designed to do.
That same year, I heard Desperado by the Eagles, and I realized that lyrics could go on a journey that wasn’t simple. I was like, “Wow, man, this is saying everything”. It was poetry, but it was emotional. I was just a very quiet, keep-to-myself kid, and those were my first two songs.
I still listen to Desperado now, and I think if I narrowed it down to 10 songs, that song could still be there. It just covers everything. I think somewhere in there, it was like, “Okay, this is kind of what I’m about.”
Josh [Abraham] listens to music as a producer, focusing on genre. For me, it was always about lyrics; how to communicate to another person. We weren’t a big communication family, so I would figure it out when I listened to songs.
2) Carole King, Will You Love Me Tomorrow (1971)
In college, I decided songwriting was really important to me. I was going to be a songwriter, and I went to school in Arizona where there was no real music scene. I went to the library, and there was just one book on songwriting. It wasn’t like my LA school.
I found a book that explained the Brill Building, and that whole era of songwriting. I don’t know why, but I was obsessed with it. I would go from Carole King through that whole era and start listening to those songs and trying to understand them; these classic songs that songwriters wrote for other people as a profession.
If I had to pick a song from that era, Will You Love Me Tomorrow by Carole King was probably the most impactful. But what’s crazy is that my first publishing deal, within six months of arriving in LA, was with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, who were Brill Building writers who wrote You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.
My first collaborations were with people like Gerry Goffin, and I was hanging out with these songwriting legends. I remember in college just fantasizing about it. I had this whole vision in my mind about how they wrote songs. They’d go in this room, there’s probably a white piano, it’s probably really magical. And then one day, I’m sitting in a room with them.
My first year of writing was with that whole group of people. They were a little older at that point. I think they were looking for some young writer to inspire them, and they were going to inspire me.
I learned how to write songs. It was a rigorous experience. The first line of the song kind of tells you exactly what is going to happen. That was a very big part of that era. You hit it right at the top. It’s not a throwaway line.
3) Brenda Russell, Get Here (1988)
My first hit was a song called Piano in the Dark by Brenda Russell.
There was this little club where really good artists would play a couple of songs, and I remember Brenda would play this song, Get Here, and the whole room would go quiet. It was very much to do with the heart.
And to spend time with her was to realize, “I don’t want to just have a hit, I actually want to make art.”
That was very formative, and I never really looked back. I always wanted everything to be art, and the commerce part is really cool too, but that happens as a byproduct; we don’t focus on it.
4) Kate Bush, This Woman’s Work (1989) / Sinead O’Connor, Nothing Compares 2 U (1990)
The next thing that happened was that I started collaborating with a writer named Anne Preven, who was my writing partner from that moment on until I stopped writing. We ended up writing a big song called Torn [recorded by Natalie Imbruglia].
I was trying to figure out what songs led us to that song, because Torn, for a lot of people, is really a big song in their lives. But what was big for me was not that song, it was the songs that we were listening to at the time.
This Woman’s Work by Kate Bush. I heard it and started bawling. I remember sitting in my studio, listening to it, and the low end came in, like the cellos, and she was singing. It’s about giving birth and regret and the future. It was just overwhelming.
Everything I was listening to, and we were both listening to at that time, were female artists.
And then, Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O’Connor, I mean, I could talk about that whole Sinead album. It was very honest.
She was not afraid, and it’s still a stunning moment, hard to compare to any other moment: a Prince lyric performed by her, and the video, the whole thing was just incredible.
Alison Moyet’s It Won’t Be Long was another song we were kind of mimicking. It wasn’t important to do that song specifically, but the lyrics were cool. It was very British, and she told everything very specifically in that song.
It was all females during that period. It was Annie Lennox, it was all of them. I don’t know why that became a period for me. Maybe it’s because Anne and I were trying to write songs for her to sing. But Torn came out of it.
5) Nirvana, Heart Shaped Box (1991) / Alice In Chains, Would? (1992) / Smashing Pumpkins, Today (1993)
Grunge changed everything for me. Pre-grunge was everything I just talked about, and then within a couple years, it was Alice In Chains’ Would?, which is still mind-boggling to me.
I can’t say Smells Like Teen Spirit, because it’s too on the nose, but I listened to it 100 times in a row! It was like a fucked-up Beatles song or something. If I had to pick a few, it would be Would? by Alice In Chains, maybe Today by Smashing Pumpkins, and I’d go to Heart Shaped Box by Nirvana instead of Smells Like Teen Spirit.
It was like The Beatles – people would say when The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, music changed. When I was hanging out with the Carole King group, they said when they saw The Beatles play, they knew their time was up. It’s not going to be the same tomorrow as it was today. Music just completely shifted.
When the grunge scene came in, that was the same feeling. And when we were making music, it just became an inspiring point of view. I remember exactly where I was when I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. I was sitting in my friend’s studio when it came on. We rushed to the record store. It was so game-changing.
But I also had that feeling with Alice In Chains and Smashing Pumpkins – they were all kind of playing on the same level for me. There were other bands, but they didn’t hit me the same way. I think those three groups spawned people like Alanis Morissette, bringing that sound into pop music and having bigger success than the original bands.
6) Radiohead, Paranoid Android (1997) / Jane’s Addiction, Three Days (1990)
OK Computer was a completely life-changing album for me. And Jane’s Addiction was also important. I think they go together, so I would choose Paranoid Android and Three Days.
They were dystopian landscapes. There was something else going on, and it was progressive, maybe. I wanted that to be me somehow. I wanted to figure out how to do that.
I bought OK Computer when I was in a band in the ’90s. The bass player did not want to hear OK Computer. He knew it was going to be great. He didn’t want to hear it while we were on the road. He didn’t want to be influenced. It was really weird.
So I listened to it alone. I bought it the day it came out, and I just kept thinking, “This is incredible.” I remember going to the hotel the next day and writing a whole album with my partner with whatever this feeling was that just kind of came over us.
It was the first time that I felt like I couldn’t write those songs myself. I felt like I understood songs like [Radiohead’s] High & Dry where it’s like verse, B section, chorus. There was something I could follow. And then I got to Jane’s Addiction and OK Computer, and I was like, “This is not just about the song, it’s the whole thing.” It’s not any section leading to another section, it’s just the whole feeling.
It’s like a Quentin Tarantino movie – there’s the name of the restaurant, cigarettes, smoke, everything’s very specific. He looks like he just made up a world. That’s what that was, and it was my first time experiencing it.
7) Elton John, Someone Saved My Life Tonight (1975) / Jeff Buckley, Hallelujah (1994)
I went through a very difficult process of what I think the two best songs were that I go back to a lot. It had to be an Elton John song, and there had to be Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, but the Jeff Buckley version, which is a masterwork.
If I had to pick one Elton song, it would be Someone Saved My Life Tonight. It tells a very specific story. It’s poetic, both sad and triumphant. He’s going to make a mistake, and he has to get out of it. The build is incredible.
I could also say Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or pick 100 Elton songs, but I decided that Someone Saved My Life Tonight was the hill I was going to die on.
And then Hallelujah. Leonard Cohen’s line “The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift” – that line describes the fourth chord, the fifth chord, the minor chord, the major chord. He wrote about the chords in the song! Right away, you win the Academy Award of songwriting.
It wasn’t his version that caught me, it was Jeff Buckley’s. There was something about Jeff. I had a couple Jeff Buckley songs I was playing around with [for this interview], but I just think that’s a master class in guitar tone, voice, and interpretation. The fact that he heard Leonard Cohen’s version and decided to do what he did was like art to me; he interpreted it through a totally different lens. It’s unrecognizable from the original.
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard Jeff Buckley play. I was in my studio with my band rehearsing, and he was friends with our drummer. He came in, grabbed our guitarist Rusty’s guitar, went to the mic and played a song – and he was just better than everybody and everything.
After that, I went to see him play at Tower Records for about 20 people. The next night, he played in a place called Moonpark for 200 people, and the whole place was just hushed whispers. It was a holy moment.
At Sony Music Publishing (SMP), we believe every voice matters. We are the #1 global music publisher, advancing the artistry of the world’s greatest songwriters and composers for over 25 years. We keep songwriters at the forefront of everything we do, and design our suite of services to amplify opportunities, build connections, and defend their rights. Our roster benefits from an international team committed to providing support at every career stage. From classic catalogues to contemporary hitmakers, history is always being written. We are a part of the Sony family of global companies. Learn more about SMP here.Music Business Worldwide
At the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a Russian MP came up to me.
“Are you going to bomb Iran?” he asked.
“I’m not planning to bomb anyone!” I replied.
“I mean you, the British…”
“Don’t you mean Donald Trump?”
“He’s told what to do by Britain,” the man smiled. “And by the deep state.”
It was a brief, bizarre conversation. But it showed that in St Petersburg this week there was more on people’s minds than just the economy.
Take President Vladimir Putin.
On Friday, the Kremlin leader delivered the keynote speech at the forum’s plenary session. It focused on the economy.
But it’s what the Kremlin leader said in the panel discussion afterwards that made headlines.
“We have an old rule,” Putin declared. “Where the foot of a Russian soldier steps, that’s ours.”
Imagine you’re the leader of a country that’s hosting an economic forum, seeking foreign investment and cooperation. Boasting about your army seizing foreign lands wouldn’t appear to be the most effective way to achieve this.
But that’s the point. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the state of the economy has been secondary to the goal of winning the war against Ukraine. That is the Kremlin’s overarching priority. True, Russia’s economy has been growing, but largely due to massive state spending on the defence sector and military-industrial complex.
And even this war-related growth is now petering out.
Putin didn’t sound overly concerned.
“As far as the ‘murder’ of the Russian economy is concerned, as a famous writer once said – ‘rumours of my death are greatly exaggerated,'” the Russian president declared.
But the Russian government is clearly nervous.
At the forum, Russia’s Minister for Economic Development, Maxim Reshetnikov, warned that the country’s economy was teetering “on the brink of recession”.
“We grew for two years at a fairly high pace because unused resources were activated,” said Russian Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina. “We need to understand that many of those resources have truly been exhausted.”
The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was conceived as a shiny showcase for the Russian economy. A lot of that shine has faded due to the thousands of international sanctions imposed on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Many Western companies pulled out of Russia.
EPA
Might they return?
After all, US President Donald Trump has made it clear he wants better relations with Moscow.
“Today we had breakfast with the American Chamber of Commerce and lots of investors came from the US. We get a sense that lots of American companies want to come back,” Kirill Dmitriev, President Putin’s envoy on foreign investment, told me. We spoke on the sidelines of the St Petersburg forum.
“I think the American administration understands that dialogue and joint cooperation is better than sanctions that do not work and hurt your businesses.”
Western businesses, though, are unlikely to return in large numbers while Russia is waging war on Ukraine.
“I think it’s clear you have to have some sort of an end to the conflict before American companies are going to seriously consider going back,” said Robert Agee, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia.
“Have you asked the Trump administration to remove some sanctions from Russia?” I asked him.
“We’ve been to Washington,” he replied. “We have made an analysis of the impact of American sanctions on American businesses. We passed that on to the administration.”
“Do you accept that the idea of Western businesses returning is controversial in light of the war in Ukraine?” I asked.
“Western businesses have made decisions based on what happened three or four years ago,” replied Mr Agee. “And it’s up to them to decide whether it’s the right time to return.”
After more than three years of war and mass sanctions, Russia faces tough economic challenges: high inflation, high interest rates, reports of stagnation, recession. The problems in the economy are now openly discussed and debated.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A British citizen has been arrested for allegedly spying on behalf of Iran near a UK air base in Cyprus, which serves as the RAF’s main hub for Middle East operations.
Cypriot authorities said on Saturday that they had detained a man on “terrorism and espionage” charges.
People in the UK familiar with the arrest did not dispute local Cypriot media reports that the alleged spy was suspected of working for Iran.
He is alleged to have monitored the UK’s Akrotiri base on the eastern Mediterranean island as well as the Cypriot Andreas Papandreou air base, which is sometimes used by the US air force.
The Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office said that the man was British and they were “in contact [with] the authorities in Cyprus regarding the arrest”.
Cypriot officials initially described the suspect as an Azerbaijani. The UK was unable to confirm immediately if he held dual nationality.
After appearing in court in Cyprus on Saturday, the man was detained for eight days on suspicion of espionage.
“Today following a co-ordinated operation by the police headquarters a person was arrested who seems to be related to terrorists acts,” the Cypriot government said.
They added that a regional court had issued a detention order “for criminal acts related, among others, to terrorism and espionage”.
They declined to comment further citing national security reasons.
A Cypriot official said they had been monitoring the individual with allies for the past month. Cypriot media reported the local police operation had been supported by the UK’s overseas intelligence service, MI6, and Israel’s Mossad.
Israeli foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Saturday that a planned attack on Israeli citizens by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been averted due to co-operation between Israeli and Cypriot security services.
“Thanks to the activity of the Cypriot security authorities, in co-operation with Israeli security services, the terror attack was thwarted,” Sa’ar said on X, without elaborating.
The UK Ministry of Defence directed enquiries to the FCDO, which works closely with MI6, as well as assisting British nationals when they are arrested overseas.
It is the UK government’s long-standing policy to neither confirm nor deny claims relating to intelligence matters.
The arrest comes as Israel’s war with Iran enters its eighth day and as the US weighs entering the conflict to destroy Tehran’s nuclear programme.
The UK has moved additional fighter jets and other military assets to the region in what Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called a contingency measure. Some of the Typhoon jets were expected to be sent to Cyprus.
On Friday, UK military aircraft were sabotaged at Brize Norton, the RAF’s biggest base, by the Palestine Action activist group, which breached security and sprayed paint into the engines of several planes.
There has been little indication that the UK would join strikes on Iranian territory. Starmer has emphasised de-escalation and diplomacy this week but has also said Iran must not acquire a nuclear weapon.
Starmer hinted last weekend that UK military assets could be used to defend Israel as it trades strikes with Iran. Iran has threatened to strike UK forces in the region if it supports Israel.
RAF jets helped shoot down Iranian projectiles launched against Israel in April last year and assisted with target identification in October, but the UK has not been involved in the latest fighting.
Israel’s ambassador to London said this week they had not requested or discussed help from the UK.
Starmer may also have to weigh whether to allow the US to use the joint UK-US base of Diego Garcia in the Chagos Archipelago if the Trump administration decides to enter the war.
B2 stealth bombers, some of which are positioned on the island, are the only military aircraft capable of delivering the largest ‘bunker-buster’ bombs believed to be capable of penetrating Iran’s underground nuclear site near Fordow.
On Friday UK foreign secretary David Lammy met Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and his counterparts from France and Germany.
Lammy said they were trying to offer Iran a diplomatic “off-ramp” but have also warned Tehran that it should hold talks with the US even without a ceasefire with Israel.
Former Columbia University student was released from a detention centre on Friday after being held for more than three months.
Former Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil has pledged to continue protesting Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as the United States’s support for Israel’s military operations.
Khalil, who was released on Friday night after being detained for more than three months at a detention centre, told reporters at New Jersey’s Newark International Airport on Saturday that the government was funding “this [Gaza] genocide, and Columbia University is investing in this genocide”.
“This is why I will continue to protest with every one of you. Not only if they threaten me with detention. Even if they would kill me, I would still speak up for Palestine,” he said.
“Whether you are a citizen, an immigrant, anyone in this land, you’re not illegal. That doesn’t make you less of a human.”
Born in Syria to Palestinian parents, Khalil, 30, was arrested by immigration agents at his university residence in March and swiftly became the image for President Donald Trump’s harsh crackdown on pro-Palestine student protesters and their possible deportation in the name of alleged anti-Semitism.
The government has claimed that the grounds to detain and deport Khalil, a legal US citizen, were that there were inaccuracies in his application for permanent residency.
But District Judge Michael Farbiarz said it was “highly, highly unusual” for the government to continue detaining a legal US resident who was unlikely to flee and had not been accused of any violence.
Under the terms of his release, Khalil is not allowed to leave the country except for “self-deportation” and faces restrictions on where he can go in the US.
The government condemned the decision to release Khalil and filed a notice that it was appealing the decision.
Fitter and Faster Swim Camps is the proud sponsor of SwimSwam’s College Recruiting Channel and all commitment news. For many, swimming in college is a lifelong dream that is pursued with dedication and determination. Fitter and Faster is proud to honor these athletes and those who supported them on their journey.
Madeline House from Peachtree Corners, Georgia, has committed to Queens University Charlotte for 2025-25 and beyond.
“I am SO excited to announce my verbal commitment to continue my athletic and academic career at Queens University of Charlotte! i would like to thank my family, friends, and SPAC coaches for supporting me throughout this journey. i am so excited to be a part of this amazing team! GO ROYALS!! 🦁👑💙”
House is graduating from Greater Atlanta Christian School, which competes in the 1-3A class at the Georgia High School Championships. House won the 200 free at the state meet this year, clocking a PB of 1:51.09. She was runner-up in the 500 free (5:02.97, also a PB) and contributed to the state-champion 200 medley (25.61 fly) and runner-up 400 free (52.03 leg) relays.
In club swimming, where she represents Spartans Aquatic Club, House finaled in the 200 free and 100 fly at the recent TYR Pro Series Sacramento. Her best LCM times in nearly every event come from last summer’s Georgia LSC Long Course Senior State Championships, where she finaled in the 50 free (28.02, PB), 100 free (1:01.02), 200 free (2:07.86, PB), 400 free (4:34.13, PB), 800 free (9:36.20, PB), 200 back (2:24.55, PB), 100 fly (1:04.37), and 200 fly (2:26.88, PB).
Queens women finished third behind Liberty and Florida Gulf Coast at the 2025 Atlantic Sun Conference Championships. House’s best times would have scored for the Royals in the “B” finals of the 200/500 free and 100/200 fly and the “C” finals of the 50 free, 200 back
Best SCY times:
100 fly – 56.30
200 fly – 2:05.66
200 back – 2:05.10
50 free – 24.18
100 free – 52.93
200 free – 1:51.09
500 free – 5:02.97
If you have a commitment to report, please send an email with a photo (landscape, or horizontal, looks best) and a quote to [email protected].
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