Global Voices

Democracy is not exhausted by the periodic holding of elections. It rests, above all, on the survival of the institutions that allow the will of the people to be freely expressed—and among these, none plays a more decisive role than...

Iran has rejected a proposal from Oman to evenly share control of the lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, as Tehran demands it control most of the critical oil and LNG chokepoint, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday,...

The outcomes of the Russia-ASEAN ministerial meeting in the Philippines: what issues were on the agenda and why these talks matter in terms of implementing the decisions of the recent leaders’ summit. A Meeting of Like-Minded Partners “Consensus, equality, mutual...

The United States and Saudi Arabia carried out coordinated airstrikes against Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq on Wednesday, marking Washington’s first direct military action in the Middle East since President Donald Trump paused the U.S. bombing campaign against Iran last...

Yemen’s Houthis late on Tuesday claimed an attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Red Sea, saying that the vessel had violated the blockade the Iran-aligned group announced last week on Saudi shipments in the Red Sea and Bab...

Venezuela’s once powerful refining sector has fallen into severe decline, with aging infrastructure, years of underinvestment, and recent earthquake damage leaving the country’s largest refineries operating far below capacity. Although the government hopes to attract billions in foreign investment to...

United States and Saudi Arabian strikes against Iran backed Shi’ite armed groups in Iraq have renewed attention on the powerful militias that have become major players in Iraq’s security, politics, and economy. Washington and Riyadh accuse these groups of carrying...

The global economy is entering a new era in which artificial intelligence is no longer merely a technological innovation but an increasingly influential economic force. Much as the internet transformed commerce and globalization reshaped production networks, AI is beginning to...

Eni (E:NYSE) is raising its share buyback program for the year after reporting on Wednesday consensus-beating earnings for the second quarter on the back of higher oil and gas prices and a jump in upstream production. The Italian energy major...

In 1870, the Italian physician Cesare Lombroso examined the skull of a dead thief named Giuseppe Villella and decided he had found the source of criminality. Villella’s skull carried a small depression that Lombroso compared to the skulls of apes...

OYSTER BAY, PALAWAN – When American forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011, I watched it happen from Kuwait, where I worked as a contracted security guard. The last convoy crossed the berm that December — roughly 100 vehicles — and...

Israel will head to national elections on October 27, marking the country’s first vote since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war and later expanded into conflicts with Lebanon and Iran. The election is widely seen...

A consortium of U.S. and Saudi companies is set to build a new refinery in the Persian Gulf despite the current situation in the region. The facility will have a price tag of $5 billion and a capacity of 200,000...

In June, the U.S. Department of Commerce informed the Dutch company ASML that it suspects one of its extreme ultraviolet lithography machines has reached China, an accusation that ASML denied, and for which no supporting evidence has yet been made...

Europe has significantly reduced its dependence on Russian energy since the 2022 energy crisis, but it now faces a different and potentially more damaging challenge: persistently high energy prices that are weakening industrial competitiveness and threatening long term economic growth....

On June 22, the United States announced that it had signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia. This type of agreement broadly authorizes trade in nuclear technology, equipment, and materials, but only if the agreement and the country in...

The UAE is still exporting liquefied natural gas, despite the threat of strikes in the Strait of Hormuz. According to a Bloomberg report, an ADNOC LNG tanker appeared in the Persian Gulf earlier today, successfully exiting the Strait of Hormuz,...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is facing mounting political and economic pressure as falling public approval ratings increasingly complicate her government’s efforts to reassure financial markets. Rising inflation, a weakening yen, and concerns over Japan’s expanding fiscal deficit have created...

New Zealand’s government has awarded the first offshore oil and gas exploration license after last year lifting a ban on drilling, put in place by the previous government that wanted to focus on a transition from hydrocarbons to electricity from...

Asian stock markets extended their sharp selloff on Wednesday as investor concerns over artificial intelligence (AI) valuations deepened ahead of a crucial round of earnings from major U.S. technology companies and the Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy decision. The decline...

The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has announced additional customs duties of 10 percent or 12.5 percent on imports from 60 trading partners following investigations conducted under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 concerning the...

In the early hours of August 5 (UTC), an abandoned SpaceX rocket stage is expected to slam into the Moon at around 8,700 kilometers per hour. Launched in January 2025, the rocket sent two commercial lunar landers toward Earth’s nearest...

The Israeli war on Gaza and the US-Israeli aggression against Iran have radically altered the situation in the Middle East. One of the most significant consequences of the current conflict is the objective weakening of Israel’s position on the world...

The Caspian Sea forms a strategically vital direct supply route between Russia and Iran (Source: BBC) On Friday, even as the US President Donald Trump was announcing the end of the latest round of the conflict with Iran, Pentagon unobtrusively...

The US military’s fighter fleet is projected to become stealthier but less available, widening the gap between technological sophistication and the combat mass needed for a prolonged war. This month, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report showing...

Faced with another summer of punishing energy costs, EU governments are once again reaching for the same short-term fixes—excise cuts, tax credits, and price caps—that have failed to deliver a lasting solution in previous crises. Behind the scramble, a more...

Vietnamese banks started deleting more than 86 million bank accounts last September. Of the roughly 200 million accounts on the country’s books, only 113 million personal accounts and some 711,000 organizational ones survived the biometric verification requirements introduced by the...

Oil prices spiked in early Asian trade on Wednesday, erasing a significant portion of Tuesday's selloff on the back of renewed hostilities in the Middle East and a bullish U.S. inventory report from the API. At the time of writing,...

Israel’s right-wing government is intensifying its half-century-long campaign to take over the West Bank fully by unleashing bands of settler militias to harass Palestinian residents, destroy their homes and livelihoods and restrict their movement throughout the occupied territory. The aim...

On June 21, 2026, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense announced that its armed forces would launch a five-day, four-night “Immediate Combat Readiness Exercise” from June 22 to June 26, intended to strengthen the ROC Armed Forces’ immediate response capabilities under...

Potential toxic substance detected in several of 15 elephants found dead in Kenya’s Amboseli national park Officials are investigating the deaths of 15 elephants over the past month in Kenya’s Amboseli national park. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said 10 of the...

It is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and we are attempting an experiment that may not please everyone. With fewer eyes in the peak holiday period, and a lesser appetite for the presumed permabull piece in these bearish weeks, we...

TOKYO — Investors hoping President Prabowo Subianto might learn from Indonesia’s past economic mistakes should get used to disappointment. Since taking office in October 2024, Prabowo has worked to drag Southeast Asia’s biggest economy back into its past. Which past...

Reprinted from Andy Worthington’s website. On Sunday evening (July 19), a group of some of the most repulsive, ghoulish people on the face of the earth marched towards the perimeter fence separating the Gaza Strip from the rest of the...

Two major stories regarding the United States and Israel in recent days represent profound watershed moments in the history of the relationship between both countries. The first incident occurred on July 8 when US Congressman Ro Khanna (D-CA) and his...

Amidst scorching temperatures and raging wildfires on the European continent, tropical storms and flash floods in the US, and severe drought in sub-Saharan Africa, high-level negotiators and state representatives gathered for a high-level retreat summit in Shamakhi, Azerbaijan on July...

Just recently, in a span of about six weeks, one impressive company was selected by the U.S. Army to build and operate rare earth processing facilities on an American military base…the first time the Army has ever done this. That...

In this issue: - Xi meets Slovak President - “Excess capacity” or “Overcapacity”? - CXMT IPO the day after - Xinhua’s mid-year review of the Chinese economy - Li Qiang commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Tangshan earthquake - National Conference on Overseas Chinese Affairs Work -...

Oil price movements since the start of March this year have become the topic of dozens of discussions. Many have been puzzled by futures prices and why they haven’t gone through the roof given the severe disruption in Middle Eastern...

Three days before its 67th sitting, the OPEC Secretariat did something it rarely bothers to do: it told the market, in writing, not to expect much from the meeting. In a statement issued ahead of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee’s...

Modern power grids require a constant, real-time balance between supply and consumption. Unfortunately, the integration of wind and solar energy makes power grids unstable due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy generation. To prevent localized grid blackouts or harmful...

Simon Davidmann is a renowned EDA industry pioneer and serial technology entrepreneur with more than 40 years of experience in simulation and verification. After Synopsys acquired Imperas, which he founded in 2005, he was Synopsys Vice President responsible for Processor...

Oil prices have just come off a fresh two-month high as the crude oil market has tumbled this week amid signals of de-escalation in the U.S.-Iran conflict. Despite the slump in crude prices and the extreme volatility in the past...