Jalal al-Din Davani on friendship as the path to perfection, on the danger of scattering oneself across different crafts, and on the discipline of silence, with an account of the Persian philosopher who served three dynasties.
Rudaki on reason, knowledge and good deeds, with a short account of the poet born in Panjrud who led the circle of poets at the Samanid court in Bukhara.
Omar Khayyam on envy, friendship, silence and the true price of kindness, with a short account of his life as a Persian philosopher, mathematician and astronomer.
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.
Rumi on grief as a garden of compassion, on finding God in one's own heart, and on the calling placed in every heart.
The founder of the Shaybanid dynasty and khan of the Bukhara Khanate was one of the outstanding commanders and statesmen of his age. Part 1 traces his education in Bukhara and the ambition he carried back to the steppes; part 2 follows his conquest of Transoxiana, Khorezm and Khorasan.
Abdullah ibn al-Muqaffa on self-respect, generosity and the discipline of silence, with an account of the Persian writer who gave Arabic its Kalila and Dimna.
Karl Haushofer (1869–1946) was born in Munich, Germany, into a professor's family. He served in the army for more than 20 years and became the author of an original theory of the continental bloc and of pan-regions.
This chart shows that China produces eight times as many STEM graduates each year as the United States, according to 2016 data from Statista.
The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a flagship of Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative, linking Pakistan's Gwadar and Karachi ports to China's Xinjiang region. Its cost has risen from an initial $46 billion to $65 billion.
Pakistan's location makes it a natural bridge between landlocked Central Asia and the Arabian Sea, according to The News on Sunday. Regional trade integration could add up to 1.7% to Pakistan's GDP.
The eastern sea corridor linking the Indian port city of Chennai with Vladivostok, Russia's largest Pacific port, is back in service. It cuts cargo delivery times from 40 to 24 days compared with the Suez Canal route.
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.
Russia and Iran are preparing to sign a Treaty on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the Iranian president's visit to Moscow within one or two months, Iran's foreign ministry says. The treaty would cover energy, transport, industry, agriculture, science, technology and defence.
Iran's foreign minister says Tehran and Moscow will sign a comprehensive cooperation agreement within one or two months, during the Iranian president's visit to Moscow. A deal planned for the BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024 was not signed.
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?
On 9 September this year former ECB president Mario Draghi presented the European Commission with a report on the future of the European economy, arguing that the EU must mobilise €750–800 billion a year to stay competitive.
The 16th BRICS summit ran in Kazan from 22 to 24 October this year under Russia's chairmanship. No new members were admitted, and the group ruled out a single currency.
An aircraft carrier is a floating airbase that projects a country's military and economic power at sea. Eleven countries operate carriers today, and NATO members together with Japan have 20 between them.
This chart shows the countries that dominated shipbuilding by gross tonnage of merchant ships built in 2023, led by China, South Korea and Japan, which together account for 94% of the industry.
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.
The Wakhan Corridor is a narrow strip of land in the Wakhan region of Badakhshan Province in eastern Afghanistan.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), identified lithium resources worldwide grew significantly in 2023, to about 98 million tonnes.
On 12 September 2000, at the second Euro-Asian Transport Conference in St Petersburg, Russia, India and Iran signed an intergovernmental agreement to create the International North–South Transport Corridor.
On 27 May 2024 Russia and Uzbekistan signed a contract for a six-unit small nuclear power plant in the Jizzakh region. The first reactor is due to start up within five years, with full commissioning no earlier than 2033.
According to the IMF, the combined GDP of the G7 reached $45.9 trillion in 2023, one and a half times the size of the BRICS economies.
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.
Saudi Arabia plans up to 16 nuclear reactors worth more than $100 billion under Vision 2030, following the example of Türkiye, Egypt, Iran and the UAE.
Saudi Arabia ranks 16th by GDP (PPP), and its oil wealth is managed by the state giant Saudi Aramco. The non-oil economy is now growing fast, even as hydrocarbons stay central to modern manufacturing.
Saudi Arabia is OPEC's most important member and a top-three crude producer. Together, OPEC and OPEC+ pump some 46% of the world's oil, which gives them real power over prices.
Poland spends the most on defence of any NATO member, at 3.9% of GDP, while the US is the main beneficiary of rising allied defence budgets.
