Shell’s decision to ink a fresh suite of commercial and technical agreements with Venezuela’s government this week is being read in energy circles as a straightforward gas deal. It is not. It is a signal, about Washington’s Venezuela strategy, about the future of Caribbean LNG, and about how far a
Shell’s decision to ink a fresh suite of commercial and technical agreements with Venezuela’s government this week is being read in energy circles as a straightforward gas deal. It is not. It is a signal, about Washington’s Venezuela strategy, about the future of Caribbean LNG, and about how far a
A meeting with something to prove This particular Council meeting arrives under pressure that is anything but ordinary. South Africa has assumed the SADC Chairship not through the normal rotation of ambition, but through the constitutional ejection of Madagascar after the political instability that rocked Antananarivo after the August 2025
There is a story the West tells about Iran. In this story, Iran is an irrational theocratic state, a sponsor of terror, an obstacle to regional stability, and a government whose people would be free if only the regime could be removed. It is a story built on selective memory,
Mikatekiso Kubayi At its founding in 2009, in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the BRICS bloc set out a clear framework for its cooperation and a method of operations that guides it towards its goals. One of the key pillars of this framework is also the first one: Political and Security cooperation. Its
On the 25th of February 2026, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stood before Parliament and delivered a budget built on a story of redemption. Five years back, South Africa was grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force, it was downgraded to junk status, and reeled from State Capture. On Wednesday, he
On the 25th of February 2026, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana stood before Parliament and delivered a budget built on a story of redemption. Five years back, South Africa was grey-listed by the Financial Action Task Force, it was downgraded to junk status, and reeled from State Capture. On Wednesday, he
Ashraf Patel When Goldman Sachs’ Jim O Neil coined the term BRIC in 2009, his frame of reference was emerging market destinations that were attractive for global capital investment from the North. In 2009, Brazil, Russia, India and China hosted an inaugural summit where the acronym BRIC was adopted. South
There is a pattern so deeply embedded in African resource economies that it has become almost invisible. Dig it up, ship it out, watch someone else turn it into something valuable, then import that valuable thing back at a premium. Tanzania is not exempt from this pattern. But what makes
There is a pattern so deeply embedded in African resource economies that it has become almost invisible. Dig it up, ship it out, watch someone else turn it into something valuable, then import that valuable thing back at a premium. Tanzania is not exempt from this pattern. But what makes
