At the 82nd session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov delivered a pointed message to the region’s policymakers: the Arctic is no longer a frozen frontier, it is a highway, and Russia intends to use
Brazil’s domestic political environment is entering a decisive phase, with the latest polling reflecting a tightly contested race. A recent survey places Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro in a near dead heat in a potential second-round vote. Bolsonaro records 42% support, while Lula follows closely at 40%,
There is a particular kind of moment in history when the powerful, in their arrogance, do something so naked, so unfiltered, that the mythology holding power together cracks in real time. The United States’ war against Iran has been that moment. Not because the US has never behaved this way
The next generation of blood-thinning medicine might not come from a laboratory synthesising new chemical compounds. It might come from a forest. Specifically, from the wood of the common spruce and a breakthrough by Russian chemists at the Krasnoyarsk Science Centre of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of
As India takes the helm of the BRICS Summit (https://iol.co.za/news/world/2025-11-17-brics-represents-a-new-era-for-the-global-south/) this year, the stakes have never been higher. In an exclusive interview, South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Professor Anil Sooklal, shares his insights on the multifaceted challenges facing the bloc, from geopolitical tensions to the pressing need for sustainable
As India takes the helm of the BRICS Summit (https://iol.co.za/news/world/2025-11-17-brics-represents-a-new-era-for-the-global-south/) this year, the stakes have never been higher. In an exclusive interview, South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, Professor Anil Sooklal, shares his insights on the multifaceted challenges facing the bloc, from geopolitical tensions to the pressing need for sustainable
In a striking geopolitical reversal, a crude oil tanker carrying Iranian oil is headed to India for the first time since May 2019. The shipment, nearly 600,000 barrels aboard the Eswatini-flagged vessel Ping Shun, is expected to dock at Vadinar in Gujarat by 4 April, marking a significant shift in
We are four weeks into the Iran war and the economic story getting the least attention is the one with the longest consequences.Somewhere in the noise of missile strikes and shipping reroutes, global fertiliser markets have moved in a way that is going to affect what food costs and who
A movement that found its language March and March’s leader, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, along with her supporters, made no attempt to temper the rhetoric condemning undocumented foreigners’ access to public services, and this includes healthcare. This is not simply fringe politics. It is reflective of a deliberate and increasingly sophisticated repositioning
A light bulb is not something most people would associate with governance. Yet nearly four decades ago, while working in one of the poorest parts of east China’s Fujian Province as the Party chief of Ningde Prefecture, Xi Jinping (https://iol.co.za/tags/xi-jinping/) told local officials that ensuring access to everyday necessities for