Tausi Insider

A migrant labourer paints The Pearl Monument, a sculpture depicting an open oyster shell with running water, on the corniche overlooking the skyline of Doha, Qatar, on Oct. 19. The World Cup has thrown an uncomfortable spotlight on Qatar’s labour system, which links workers’ visas to employers and keeps wages low for workers toiling in difficult conditions. Nariman El-Mofty/The Associated Press Victor Matheson is an economics professor at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. Although it is unlikely that a full accounting will ever be made public, it is estimated that Qatar will have spent between $300-billion and $400-billion preparing for the current World Cup, a four-week event. Not only does this make Qatar’s World Cup the most expensive in history, but the total costs may exceed the costs of every World Cup, Summer Olympics, and Winter Olympics in history … combined. So, how does Qatar plan to earn a return on its massive investment? The only plausible explanation for Qa...

If Canadian soccer fans who journeyed to Doha for the World Cup found themselves feeling homesick during the first couple of weeks of the tournament, they might have dropped into an unusual pop-up restaurant in the city’s downtown to sample a taste of home – with a twist. Every day at noon, the CONCACAFE served up free meals fusing some of the cuisines of the 41 countries that comprise FIFA’s CONCACAF conference: unlikely dishes such as mac and cheese tacos with a side of plantain, a jerk-chicken burger with za’atar fries and mojo dipping sauce, and a beef shawarma poutine. The initiative – along with a number of others like it in Doha – was a brainchild of SDI Sports, a Toronto-based sports-marketing agency that has developed a reputation as a trustworthy creator of onsite fan experiences. In Canada, the company may be best known for the travelling circus known as Rogers Hometown Hockey, which it helped create and then managed for its eight-season run. Much has been made about Qatar...

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks during a news conference in Berlin, on Jan. 13. MICHELE TANTUSSI/Reuters Germany is in talks with Iraq over the possibility of importing natural gas from the oil-rich country, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, as Berlin scrambles to diversify its energy sources to replace a drop in Russian fossil fuel shipments. “We also talked about possible gas deliveries to Germany and agreed to stay in close contact,” Scholz told journalists in a joint news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Berlin. Scholz did not give further details on the volumes of gas Germany hopes to import from Iraq. Baghdad has offered opportunities to German companies to invest in using Iraq’s natural gas and the gas generated as a byproduct from oil production, al-Sudani said, adding that Iraq wants to deliver gas through a pipeline via Turkey to Europe. Iraq continues to flare some of the gas extracted alongside crude oil because it lacks the facili...