The joint declaration adopted by BRICS at its 17th summit in Rio de Janeiro calls for an immediate, permanent and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from the occupied Palestinian territories, and a global framework for governing artificial intelligence.
The International North–South Transport Corridor is an ambitious 7,200-km multimodal route from St Petersburg to Mumbai. Because every branch of it runs through Iran, the country has become the corridor's pivotal link.
China controls 62% of the global electric vehicle market and holds on to its lead in electric transport.
In September 2023, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India, the United States, the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the EU announced plans for the India–Middle East–Europe Corridor (IMEC). It is meant to speed up trade and deepen economic integration between Asia, the Gulf and Europe — but war in the Middle East now threatens it.
The Jerusalem Post, citing Iranian state media, reports that Iran's foreign minister has held talks with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as part of a drive to deepen trade and transport ties across Central Asia and offset its losses from severed ties with the West.
The Middle East is not only the world's larder, with its vast oil, gas and uranium wealth, but also the most important intersection of global transport corridors. What happens if war closes the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Suez Canal?
The Cold War divided the planet into three worlds; after the Soviet bloc collapsed, the concepts of the Global North and the Global South took shape.
Defence spending rose at its fastest rate in a decade in 2023, reaching $2.443 trillion worldwide, with NATO accounting for 55% of the total.
Saudi Arabia's decision not to renew its era-defining security agreement with the United States, the sale of oil for dollars, reflects both America's declining global influence and where most Saudi oil is now sold.
Ibn Khaldun's theory of asabiya explains the rise and fall of elites, and it still reads true today. The piece then turns to Saudi Arabia's demography and the mounting pressure of Yemen's population growth.
