Global Watch: U.S. secretly met Houthis as Yemen war widened around Saudi Arabia
What Happened.
U.S. officials met senior representatives of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis at the U.S. Embassy in Muscat, Oman, over the weekend, five sources familiar with...
Global Economy Watch: Global Chip Sales Have Already Broken the Annual Record — With...
What Happened
The global semiconductor industry has crossed a striking threshold: worldwide chip sales through July 2026 have already exceeded the highest annual total ever...
Global Economy Watch: Global Bond Selloff Breaks Another Threshold — U.S. 10-Year Yield Hits...
What Happened
The global government-bond selloff has accelerated again, pushing the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield to 5.34%—its highest level since 2002 and above its...
Global Economy Watch: Russia Cuts Its Oil Outlook to a 17-Year Low
What Happened
Russia has slashed its 2026 oil-production forecast to the lowest level since 2009, a significant deterioration in the outlook for one of the...
Global Economy Watch: China Begins Dismantling the Housing Model That Helped Create Its Property...
What Happened
China has launched one of its most consequential property reforms since the housing crisis began in 2021, moving the industry away from the...
Global Watch: Houthi attacks wound 73 in Saudi Arabia as Yemen’s war spills across...
What Happened. Iran-backed Houthi forces launched a wave of missile and drone attacks into Saudi Arabia early September 8, wounding at least 73 people,...
Global Watch: Israel says it has consolidated a security zone inside southern Lebanon and...
What Happened.
Israel said on September 10 that its forces have completed the consolidation of a self-declared security zone around the strategically important Ali al-Taher...
Global Economy Watch — IMF Issues Urgent Warning as Government Borrowing Costs Reach Their...
What Happened
The world's governments are approaching a dangerous financial crossroads as historically high public debt collides with rapidly rising borrowing costs. On October 14,...
Global Watch: Russia launches nearly 500 drones across Ukraine in one of the war’s...
What Happened.
Russia launched nearly 500 drones across Ukraine on September 12, according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in a sweeping attack that killed at least...
Global Economy Watch: Gulf LNG Trade Creates an Emergency Shipping Relay — as Asian...
What Happened
A new workaround is emerging for one of the most vulnerable parts of the global energy system. Qatari and UAE LNG producers have...
Global Watch: Ethiopia’s Tigray peace deal collapses as major offensive opens a new war
What Happened.
A major new conflict has erupted in Ethiopia after forces from the northern Tigray region launched a large-scale offensive against the federal government,...
Global Economy Watch: Russia Extends Diesel Export Ban as the Global Fuel Shortage Deepens
What Happened
Russia has extended its ban on diesel exports through the end of October, removing another important source of refined fuel from a global...
Global Economy Watch: Two Saudi Oil Supertakners Hit in Hormuz
What Happened
Two very large crude carriers carrying Saudi oil were struck by unidentified projectiles within minutes of one another while exiting the Strait of...
Global Economy Watch: U.S. Begins Directly Destroying Iran’s Oil Fleet — Escalating the Energy...
What Happened
The United States has crossed a new threshold in the Iran conflict by directly striking three Iranian oil tankers, including one near Kharg...
Global Watch: Ukraine and Russia
A significant new escalation has occurred in the Russia–Ukraine war.
What happened: Ukraine carried out a large drone-and-missile attack on Novorossiysk, Russia’s principal Black Sea...
Global Watch: Somalia’s Internal Political Struggle Erupts into Open Fighting in a Major Humanitarian...
What Happened. Somali government forces fought several hours of heavy battles on September 3 around Baidoa, the capital of South West State, after militias...
Global Economy Watch: U.S. Diesel Prices Hit a Record as a Global Refining Crunch...
What Happened
U.S. diesel prices have reached a record $5.82 per gallon, surpassing the previous peak set in 2022, as disruptions to Russian and Middle...
Global Watch: Russia-Ukraine Aerial War Escalates Sharply Again
What happened: Ukraine launched nearly 800 drones at Russia on August 18, only two days after another exceptionally large Ukrainian barrage. Russian authorities said...
Global Watch: Myanmar
What happened: Myanmar’s military has deployed hundreds of troops—about 700 according to conflict monitor ACLED—into the southern Tanintharyi region, backed by air and naval...
Global Economy Watch: Global Borrowing Costs Reach Their Highest Level Since the 2008 Financial...
What Happened
The global bond sell-off has crossed a broader threshold: the average 10-year government-bond yield across the G7 has reached 4.285%, its highest level...
Global Economy Watch: Europe Enters Winter With Its Lowest Gas Storage in 15 Years...
What Happened
Europe is approaching the winter heating season with natural-gas storage only about 66% full, the lowest level for this time of year in...
Global Watch: Al-Qaeda affiliate kills more than 100 Malian soldiers as pressure mounts on...
What Happened.
The al-Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has inflicted one of the most devastating defeats suffered by Mali’s military during its long insurgency,...
Global Economy Watch: Houthis Reach Perim Island — Threatening the Red Sea Chokepoint Saudi...
What Happened
Houthi forces have now reached Perim Island inside the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, after taking nearby Dhubab and advancing rapidly down Yemen’s Red Sea...
Global Watch: Eritrean Troops Enter Ethiopia as Regional War Threat Grows
What Happened.
Troops from Eritrea have reportedly crossed into northern Ethiopia, threatening to transform Ethiopia’s renewed civil war into a direct interstate conflict. Reuters and...
Global Economy Watch: WTO Warns the Global Trading System Is Entering a Dangerous New...
What Happened
The World Trade Organization has issued one of its strongest warnings yet about the erosion of the rules-based trading system. In its new...
Global Economy Watch: US-Canada Trade Talks Collapse
What Happened
The United States imposed 50% tariffs on roughly $20 billion of Canadian goods on August 22 after last-minute negotiations between Washington and Ottawa...
Global Watch: UN Forced to Halve Food Aid in West Bank
What Happened. The World Food Programme announced on September 1 that it is cutting food assistance in the occupied West Bank by half, reducing...
Global Economy Watch: US Unveils ‘Economic D-Day’ Against Iran
What Happened
The United States formally launched its promised new sanctions campaign against Iran on August 24, targeting roughly 60 individuals, entities and vessels and...
Global Economy Watch: Norway’s Move Reinforces Global Shift Away from Government Debt
Norway’s $2.3 Trillion Wealth Fund Proposes an $80 Billion Cut to U.S. Treasuries — Reinforcing the Global Shift Away From Government Debt
What Happened
Norway’s $2.3...
Global Watch: Ethiopia’s main armed movements form alliance to overthrow Abiy government
What Happened.
Seven Ethiopian armed groups have formed a new nationwide alliance whose stated objective is to remove Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and establish...
Global Watch: Ukraine Launches One of Its Largest Attacks of the War
What happened: Ukraine launched hundreds of drones across Russia overnight into August 16, in what the Associated Press describes as one of Kyiv’s largest...
Global Watch: Haiti Gang Massacre
What happened
At least 47 people were killed and 22 wounded in an overnight gang assault on Kenscoff, a strategically important community overlooking Port-au-Prince. Armed...
Global Watch: NATO Shoots Down Drone Over Romania
What happened: A Spanish F-18 flying a NATO air-policing mission shot down a drone that entered Romanian airspace early on August 16. Romania’s Defense...
Global Story Watch: Third UAE tanker attacked as Hormuz crisis deepens
What happened: The United Arab Emirates says a third vessel operated by state-owned ADNOC was attacked while transiting the Strait of Hormuz on August...
Global Watch: Escalations in US-Iran War
What Happened. The United States launched a substantially broader round of airstrikes against Iran on September 1, hitting Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets around...
Global Watch: US and South Korea
What happened: President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” joint U.S.–South Korean military exercises, including drills that began on August 17....
Global Economy Watch: Global Energy Shock Widens
Global Energy Shock Is Becoming a System-Wide Supply Crisis
What Happened
New data now show that the energy disruption has become substantially broader than the Strait...
Global Watch: Iran-US Ceasefire Collapses
What happened: The temporary U.S.–Iran ceasefire has expired without a broader agreement, and President Trump said on August 18 that there are no talks...
Global Economy Watch: Diesel Shortage Is Becoming a Global Economic Problem
What Happened
The energy shock has moved beyond crude oil into the refined fuel that keeps much of the physical economy running. Asian diesel refining...
Global Watch: Russia is Crippling Ukraine’s Civilian Food Distribution System
What Happened. Russia’s intensified drone and missile campaign has destroyed or disrupted roughly 90% of Ukraine’s modern food-storage and retail-logistics capacity, according to Ukrainian...
Global Watch: Houthis seize strategic town and tighten pressure on Taiz despite new government...
What Happened.
Iran-aligned Houthi forces have captured Turbah, a strategically important town southwest of Taiz, according to local officials cited by the Associated Press, extending...
Global Watch: Somalia Hunger Crisis
What happened: The World Food Programme says 6 million people in Somalia are now facing acute food insecurity, while the agency has only about...
Global Watch: Sudan and West Africa
Sudan: the RSF has renewed a major offensive around al-Obeid. Rapid Support Forces launched drone and ground attacks on the strategically important North Kordofan...
Global Economy Watch: China’s Export Boom Accelerates — Deepening the World Economy’s Dependence on...
What Happened
China’s exports surged 25% year over year in August, accelerating from 23.9% in July, while imports jumped 28.2%. The standout was high-tech trade:...
Global Watch: U.S.-Iran war expands as Washington destroys five tankers and Tehran retaliates toward...
What Happened. The U.S.-Iran confrontation escalated again on September 8, with the U.S. military saying it has now destroyed five Iranian oil tankers after...
Global Economy Watch: Global Food Prices Jump to Their Highest Since 2022
What Happened
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization reported on September 4 that its global Food Price Index rose 1.9% in August to 133.3...
Global Economy Watch: U.S. Begins Enforcing Its Iran Sanctions Against a Third-Country Bank
What Happened
The United States has moved from threatening Iran’s foreign financial partners to actually targeting one of them. On August 28, the Treasury Department...
Global Watch: Yemen displacement surges past 125,000 as humanitarian crisis accelerates
What Happened.
More than 125,000 people have now fled their homes in Yemen as Houthi forces advance along the Red Sea coast, according to the...
Global Watch: Somalia’s Child Health System Shutting Down
What happened: UNICEF reported on August 21 that 205 health and nutrition facilities in Somalia have already closed because of unprecedented humanitarian funding cuts....
Global Watch: Yemen displacement surges past 80,000 as Houthi offensive expands into Saudi Arabia
What Happened.
Fighting in Yemen intensified again on September 13, with Iranian-backed Houthi forces launching additional drone and missile attacks into Saudi Arabia while Saudi-backed...
