Europe
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Wages Frozen, Gas Doubled, Warships Wanted On 1 October Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu unveiled €54 billion of savings in France’s 2027 budget. They include a public-sector pay freeze and limits on pension increases…
Politics/Diplomacy
In a revealing exchange from a Turkish television interview, former Turkish Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu delivered an explicit account of how Ankara intervened in 2012 to block the United Kingdom…
#Culture
Darius helps select new guards for the Five Star caravan, and a fun trip to the suq comes to a sudden, chaotic end. Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11…
Larry C. Johnson
Benjamin Netanyahu has a talent for round numbers, and for knowing which audience gets which one. On the night of October 17, 2024, after Israeli soldiers stumbled on Yahya Sinwar in Rafah and killed him, the prime…
Long-read
The current war with Iran and its chaotic unfolding open a door of great danger for the U.S. and the planet. At best, we are condemned to negotiations dominated by personal and political imperatives that seem to fit with…
When Nguyễn Thành Nam released In Conversation with Thanh: A New Account of the Light in April, Vietnam’s state media fell in line. Twenty official outlets, including major Communist Party mouthpieces, coordinated their…
Economics
On Sunday, 4 October, Brasil is holding a general election Michael Roberts is an Economist in the City of London and a prolific blogger . Cross-posted from Michael Roberts’ blog The most important election in South…
Style
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Victoria Beckham showcased her spring/summer 2027 collection at Paris Fashion Week, featuring slinky dresses, wide-legged trousers, and large handbags. Models displayed oversized suits in green and blue with wide…
External
Years ago, I saw a viral video where a blacksmith debunked the whole “fire doesn’t melt steel” line from 9/11 conspiracy theories. That blacksmith was an old friend of mine named Trenton Tye. I got a chance to chat with…
Hebron / PNN — Monjed Jadou Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, accompanied by a number of ministers and officials, visited Al-Rabieh Feed Company and its manufacturing plant in Beit Awwa, Hebron province, to…
External
Several countries across Latin America have been rapidly expanding their wind energy capacity to diversify the energy mix and strengthen energy security, with far more expansion planned for the next decade. Brazil and…
This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 18 September 2026. Mamadou Diawo Labboyah Barry, publishing director of the Guinean press group Le Lynx and correspondent for the French media outlet Jeune Afrique…
This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 4 September 2026. In this piece, our Senior Manager for Freedom of Expression and Digital Rights, Vivian Afoah, unpacks Mali’s shrinking civic space, examining the…
You Love To See It
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Good things are happening! Watchdogs clean up dirty justice, Dolly’s greatest hits keep rolling, states kick the vape habit, and a prediction market gamble goes belly up. You Love To See It is a benefit of a Lever paid…
Recipes
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Chia seeds and goji berries have something in common beyond their reputation as fashionable “superfoods”: both have much older food traditions than their recent popularity in Western supermarkets suggests. One comes from…
World
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Just days before Brazil’s presidential election, the issue of foreign interference has unexpectedly acquired a Russian dimension. Reuters reported on closed-door September consultations between Brazil’s intelligence…
Energy News
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The Trump administration’s discussions with Russia to end the war in Ukraine have included a potential multibillion-dollar oil deal. This deal would benefit Middle Eastern business executives linked to US negotiators…
Science & Technology
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Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) are unprecedented, surpassing previous technological booms like railways and the internet. A report from PwC predicts that global spending on data centers could exceed $30…
GAZA / PNN / With schools and educational centres absent from several areas where Palestinians have been displaced, school principal Rana Muslim has launched a personal education initiative in the Al-Zawaida area to…
Libya
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Western Libya’s GNU say working with Saddam Haftar ‘impossible’ as US-backed merger plan breaks down Allegations that the son of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar oversaw a “terror cell” that launched drone attacks on…
Diplomacy
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The 81st UNGA, which is the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the United Nations, was held late September 2026 in New York. It attracted global leaders and several delegations, who delivered…
Brussels /PNN/ Palestinian Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg Amal Jadou Shakaa met with the EU’s Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, Christophe Bigot, to discuss the latest…
Arts & Life
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In hospitality, standardisation creates a sense of trust; in gastronomy, it can sometimes disconnect a restaurant from the place it inhabits. While speaking with Mark Vaessen, Global Culinary Chef of OKU Hotels, in…
World News
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Latvians are voting in a parliamentary election that could keep pro-Ukrainian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs in power, but political divisions may make forming a government challenging. Concerns about potential Russian…
Eurasia
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On 30 September, Russia put a nuclear threat in writing and sent it to NATO. The diplomatic note, seen by Reuters, warned that Moscow was prepared to use every capability at its disposal, nuclear weapons included, if…
Opinion
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In February 2026, weeks after Cambodia’s National Assembly approved a draft law to ratify the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a convention Phnom Penh signed in 1983 but never ratified, Japan unveiled…
External
From strategic partnership between to the effects of natural disasters and climate phenomena, the past week brought developments with implications across Asia. Here are some of the stories we published in recent days…
Europe
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Europe has spent the past four years trying to make sure it would never again depend on Russia for its energy in the way it did before the invasion of Ukraine. In 2021, Russia supplied more than 40 percent of the EU’s…
Larry C. Johnson
Donald Trump would like you to know that the Strait of Hormuz is in tremendous shape. Possibly the best shape in its history. On September 27, he told reporters that “last night, we took a record amount of oil out of the…
External
President Donald Trump said Friday that South Korea’s investment agreement with the United States now includes $8.4 billion for an enhanced oil recovery project. Seoul says it agreed to no such thing. “The Republic of…
History books
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Pioneering historian who transformed the study of Africa by seeking out the testimonies of Africans When John Iliffe, who has died aged 87, wrote his book The African Poor: A History (1987), the continent was readily…
World
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Recent reports suggest that Western partners are pressing Armenia to impose a visa regime on Russia as a condition for closer ties with the European Union. This alleged demand, cited by the Armenian publication Hraparak…
World
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Argentina's recent launch of its first military nano-satellite, ETNS, represents a dual achievement and a symptom of shifting priorities. While the satellite was a product of domestic engineering prowess, developed by…
Economics
You have been trained to believe that inflation must be controlled with rises in interest rates. Now take two seconds to stop and ask why and you’ll start seeing just how nuts a lot of economics is. Robin McAlpine is…
Geopolitics
The trial of five Palestinian rights activists, now approaching its final stage, has exposed for all to see not only Germany’s increasingly neofascist playbook for silencing dissent but complicity in Israel’s genocide…
Geopolitics
Once again, the British state is exploiting anti-democratic terrorism measures to secure convictions of Palestine Action defendants who targeted an Israeli weapons plant. UK media is currently forbidden from reporting on…
External
Tajikistan announced that it is now receiving oil and petroleum products from Iran, opening a potential new energy source for a country whose fuel supplies have long been dominated by Russia. The deliveries began in late…
Foreign Affairs
Scrambling to halt the ongoing offensive of Yemen’s Armed Forces, Israel and Saudi Arabia have strengthened ties through a joint covert campaign aimed at salvaging what remains of their supremacy in the Red Sea region…
World
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The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings against Spain for failing to submit its updated energy crisis action plan on time. Spain is not alone in this predicament; France has also faced similar…
LeverMind Quiz
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How is Trump re-running campaign ads? Where are companies sending their hazardous waste? And who’s regulating our financial system? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in LeverMind , our weekly news…
Greene Tweed
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Magen Buterbaugh was appointed President and CEO of Greene Tweed in January 2023. A seasoned leader, with broad industry expertise, Magen has led multiple chemicals & materials-based businesses – spanning from startups…
Energy Geopolitics
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Crude Came Back. Diesel Didn’t. This week, seven months after the Iran war shut the Strait of Hormuz, crude oil finally returned to normal. Around 13.5 million barrels a day are again leaving the Gulf through the strait…
Americas
This Sunday , Brazilian voters head to the polls to decide whether left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will win a historic fourth term. Lula’s challenger is Flávio Bolsonaro, who has styled himself as…
Activism
When it burst into widespread use as a result of the 1976 movie “All the President’s Men,” the phrase “Follow the money” referred to political influence or corruption and how to track it. Fifty years later, the meaning…
Activism
For years, a subculture of amateur investigators has been publicly performing a by-now familiar script. Posing as children online, they arrange meetings with unsuspecting adult men, then show up with cameras and…
Democracy & Governance
For much of the year, the war with Iran was treated in Washington as a foreign-policy problem: a question of military objectives, nuclear policy, deterrence, and negotiations. As the November 3 midterm elections…
Activism
With a month to go before the midterm elections, conservatives are escalating their attacks on transgender Americans in the belief that transphobia is an effective strategy for galvanizing voters. Elon Musk ’s super PAC…
3D IC
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The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum highlighted many accomplishments across TSMC’s vast ecosystem. Specific achievements with TSMC as well as collaborative work across several companies were all on display. And there was an…