Global Pulse

标签： Asia

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  • UAE oil production hits record high after leaving Opec

    UAE oil production hits record high after leaving Opec

    The United Arab Emirates has reached an unprecedented all-time high in crude oil production just one month after withdrawing from the Saudi-led Opec alliance, new data shows, as the Gulf producer shrugs off geopolitical risks surrounding Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz to seize full advantage of its new market autonomy.

    In a recently published report released Friday, data from the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms the UAE pumped 4.1 million barrels of crude per day in June. This marks a dramatic 600,000 barrel per day increase over the country’s 2025 average production of 3.5 million bpd, and it outstrips the UAE’s prior record output of 4 million bpd set in 2020, a period when the Opec+ alliance was fractured by a brutal price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.

    The sharp production surge aligns with longstanding assessments from energy analysts that Abu Dhabi had long felt constrained by production quotas set under Saudi leadership within Opec. Over recent years, the UAE has poured billions of dollars into expanding its total oil production capacity, but repeatedly raised objections to Saudi Arabia’s coordinated supply cuts, which were designed to prop up global crude prices and blocked the UAE from maximizing its output.

    Abu Dhabi formalized its exit from Opec in May, a move that came amid a broader rift with Saudi Arabia that extends beyond energy policy to include sharp disagreements over conflicts in Yemen and Sudan, as well as diplomatic stances toward Israel. The withdrawal has already drawn public approval from the Trump administration, which has prioritized keeping global energy prices stable amid the ongoing US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

    Geopolitical turmoil surrounding the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global oil supplies transit, has stirred widespread market volatility since the outbreak of the war in late February. At the peak of tensions earlier this year, when both Iran and the U.S. imposed blockades on the waterway, international benchmark Brent crude climbed above $100 per barrel. Contrary to the worst-case price spikes many analysts predicted, however, crude markets stabilized far faster than forecast.

    Analysts attribute the contained price growth to two key factors: a historic release of strategic petroleum reserves from Western nations, and a 30% cut to China’s crude import volumes, which reduced overall global demand. This combination of expanded supply and softened demand has acted as a critical buffer for the fragile global economy, though the market has not been entirely unscathed: prices for key refined products including liquefied petroleum gas, diesel, and jet fuel have rallied significantly. Additionally, Asian energy buyers, who rely heavily on Gulf oil exports, have faced far steeper price hikes than customers in the United States and Western Europe.

    The IAEA’s report also notes that while crude volumes are returning to global markets from the Gulf, refined product exports from the region remain less than 50% of pre-war levels. Despite this, the UAE’s ability to maintain consistent oil exports underscores its success in mitigating risks from Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz.

    The UAE operates a crude oil pipeline that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz entirely, delivering oil to the export terminal at Fujairah Port on the country’s east coast. The route is not entirely risk-free, however, as it remains vulnerable to potential Iranian drone attacks. In a June report, Reuters revealed the UAE paid billions of dollars to Iran in exchange for a halt to cross-border attacks, a major policy reversal for the country, which had joined the U.S. and Israel in launching dozens of strikes on Iranian targets since the outbreak of the war.

    Maritime intelligence sources add that the UAE has also moved oil through the Strait of Hormuz using so-called “dark vessels” that operate with their automatic identification transponders turned off to hide their movements. The country has built its own dedicated fleet of oil tankers for these operations, and has also secured capacity from independent shipowners willing to accept the risk of Iranian strikes in exchange for far higher shipping rates.

  • ‘We just disappeared’: Palestine Action defendant recalls ‘horrifying’ arrest

    ‘We just disappeared’: Palestine Action defendant recalls ‘horrifying’ arrest

    Eight Palestine Action affiliates are currently on trial at London’s Old Bailey, facing charges of violent disorder and criminal damage linked to a 2024 raid on an Elbit Systems-owned Israeli arms manufacturing facility near Bristol, with one defendant already acquitted on the more serious charge. The case centers on allegations that the eight defendants coordinated the August 6 break-in at the Filton plant through pre-raid reconnaissance and equipment purchases, though none are accused of physically entering the factory site themselves. All defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are brought under the UK’s joint enterprise doctrine, a legal framework that allows prosecutors to hold co-conspirators liable for offenses committed by other participants in a planned action.

    One defendant, 53-year-old Edinburgh-based artist Hannah Davidson, broke down in tears while giving evidence this week, describing the traumatic aftermath of her August 7 counter-terrorism arrest as a trigger for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder that affects all co-defendants. Davidson recalled being transferred to a Newbury counter-terrorism detention unit after being taken from her home, where she said she was held incommunicado for days with no access to legal representation. While prosecutors later corrected her timeline, noting she first spoke to a solicitor 31.5 hours after arrest, Davidson told the court her perception of the experience was distorted by an autistic meltdown that left her disoriented and struggling to breathe. “It was just horrifying. We all just have really chronic PTSD about that period. We just disappeared,” she told jurors.

    Davidson also detailed to the court what drove her to become involved in pro-Palestinian direct action, tracing her activism back to the October 2023 escalation of Israeli military operations in Gaza. A former youth services worker who rebuilt her life as an artist after housing instability during the Covid-19 pandemic, Davidson described being completely shattered by graphic social media footage of civilian casualties in Gaza. She recalled quitting her job at a storage facility after spending hours daily crying while watching crisis updates, saying she turned first to traditional advocacy: writing to politicians and lobbying local government through the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee in Edinburgh. The turning point, she said, came in February 2024, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer ordered Labour MPs to vote against a Scottish National Party parliamentary motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. “It just made me realise that all of this letter writing was not going to work, it wasn’t going to happen,” she explained.

    Davidson told the court she attended a Palestine Action training day in Edinburgh in April 2024, and only agreed to take on a limited behind-the-scenes role as a driver for the Filton action days before the raid, after organizers said they were short on support staff. She acknowledged she was aware the action would involve criminal damage to the factory, but said she had no knowledge of plans for violent tactics and only reviewed planning documents related to her driving role. She denied prosecutors’ claims that she was a core coordinator of the raid, telling the court “It sounds terribly naive considering the trouble we’re in now, which I could not have foreseen.”

    Co-defendant Teuta Hoxha, 30, also took the witness stand Friday, tearfully describing her own path to activism after the October 2023 Gaza escalation. Before joining Palestine Action, Hoxha said she pursued traditional advocacy: writing to UK government departments, partnering with local mosques, and running fundraising stalls for Gaza. She said a graphic social media video of a Gaza father holding the dismembered remains of his children in plastic bags pushed her to join more direct action, calling the moment the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”

    Hoxha, who had previously participated in non-violent Palestine Action protests using the “lock-on” tactic where activists attach themselves to infrastructure, told jurors she had no idea the group planned violent action when she joined. Prosecutors accuse her of coordinating the Filton raid by conducting pre-action surveillance of the site, but Hoxha said any reconnaissance she completed was for a general pool of potential actions across the UK, not specifically for the Filton raid. She told the court she only traveled to Bristol days before the action to manage GoPro cameras for the protest, handling logistics like charging batteries and installing SIM cards for footage that would be used to publicize the action and document Elbit’s weapons work. Her trial testimony echoed Davidson’s: she denies any role in coordinating the raid.

    Last week, presiding judge Patrick Field acquitted defendant William Plastow, 35, of the violent disorder charge, ruling that prosecutors had failed to present sufficient evidence to support the allegation. Plastow still faces a separate charge of criminal damage in connection with the raid. The trial of the eight remaining defendants is ongoing.

  • ‘Shared ambitions’: Canada, Saudi Arabia sign deals on defence, investment, and AI

    ‘Shared ambitions’: Canada, Saudi Arabia sign deals on defence, investment, and AI

    In a landmark step that reshapes Canada’s diplomatic and economic footprint in the Middle East, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has become the first Canadian head of government to visit Saudi Arabia in more than 26 years, capping the trip with 13 new commercial agreements and memoranda of understanding valued at $700 million spanning multiple key sectors.

    Carney’s visit to Riyadh came immediately after he attended the 2026 NATO Leaders’ Summit in Ankara, Turkey, a gathering that saw U.S. President Donald Trump praise regional Middle Eastern leaders while publicly criticizing long-standing traditional Western allies. Against a backdrop of steadily souring Canada-U.S. relations following Trump’s inauguration last year, Carney has actively pursued a strategy to reduce Canada’s heavy economic dependence on its southern neighbor, turning to cash-rich Gulf Cooperation Council nations in a push for diversified trade partnerships. This trip marks the second such high-profile visit to a Gulf state under Carney, following his January 2025 trip to Qatar—the first visit to that country by a sitting Canadian prime minister.

    “The global landscape is shifting rapidly, creating widespread uncertainty for national economies, private businesses, and working people across the world,” Carney noted in an official statement released Thursday. “In response, Canada is focusing on the elements we can control: building domestic economic strength, expanding our network of trade partnerships, and forging a robust web of new global connections. That means deepening ties with the world’s largest, most dynamic economies, including Saudi Arabia.”

    Today, Saudi Arabia stands as Canada’s second-largest trading partner in the Middle East, with cumulative bilateral trade surpassing $15 billion since 2020. By International Monetary Fund estimates, Saudi Arabia’s total GDP stands at just under $2 trillion, while Canada’s economy totals just over that mark—a comparable size that frames the two nations as mutually viable economic partners. Carney emphasized that the two countries have “complementary economies with shared ambitions” for long-term growth.

    The new agreements cover a wide range of collaborative initiatives: Canadian firms will support mining, critical minerals extraction, and clean energy projects across Saudi Arabia; domestic infrastructure companies will participate in large-scale development projects tied to Riyadh’s Vision 2030 reform agenda, including new road and rail construction; and Canadian health technology firms will provide the kingdom with cutting-edge intelligent medical diagnostic and treatment tools. The two sides also agreed to deepen cooperation on liquefied natural gas development, utility-scale renewable energy projects, and carbon capture and storage technology.

    In the emerging technology space, Canada and Saudi Arabia will collaborate on building specialized sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure to support next-generation frontier AI models, working through their respective national AI entities: Canada’s Cohere and Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN. To facilitate greater cross-border investment, Carney and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced that negotiations for a bilateral Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement will conclude by early 2027, and new talks have been launched to finalize a double taxation agreement aimed at eliminating duplicate tax burdens for businesses and workers operating in both countries. A new Canada-Saudi Arabia Coordination Council will oversee the implementation of all new collaborative projects.

    On the defense front, Carney announced the appointment of a permanent Canadian defense attaché to Riyadh, a move designed to boost exports of Canadian-made military equipment. Canada’s defense sector specializes in artillery systems, light armored vehicles, and component manufacturing for F-35 fighter jets.

    Diplomatically, the two leaders aligned on a range of pressing regional issues. Both issued a joint condemnation of the July 7 attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, which ultimately led to the collapse of the U.S.-Iran ceasefire announced by Trump last Friday. Both Carney and Mohammed bin Salman have expressed public support for the U.S. military campaign against Iran that launched February 28, though Saudi Arabia has privately pushed for a new ceasefire to end hostilities. On Yemen, Canada formally backed the Saudi-supported, internationally recognized Presidential Leadership Council based in Aden, while calling for renewed security and stability in the Red Sea, where Iran-aligned Houthi forces have disrupted international commercial shipping in response to U.S. and Israeli military actions in Gaza. Carney also confirmed that Saudi Arabia has welcomed Canada’s formal recognition of the State of Palestine, and he joined calls for the safe, urgent, and unimpeded delivery of life-saving humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza. On Sudan, both leaders reaffirmed that the country’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity must be fully respected, and called for an end to external actions that fuel ongoing conflict and undermine stability. Since Sudan’s 2023 civil war broke out, Canada has processed approximately 27,000 temporary and permanent residency visas for Sudanese citizens, and has committed more than $150 million in humanitarian aid to Sudan through United Nations agencies and the international charity Save the Children as of April 2026.

    The reset in Canada-Saudi relations comes after years of tension stemming from a 2018 diplomatic row that upended ties between the two nations. In August of that year—two months before the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul drew global condemnation—Saudi Arabia cut all scholarship funding for Saudi students in Canada and recalled all Saudi citizens studying in the country, after Canada’s then-foreign minister called for the release of jailed Saudi human rights activists including Samar Badawi.

    Samar Badawi’s brother, Raif Badawi, a prominent liberal reformer who co-founded the website Free Saudi Liberals to push for political change in the kingdom, had been arrested in 2012 on charges of “insulting Islam through electronic channels.” He was initially sentenced to seven years in prison and 600 lashes, a sentence that was extended to 10 years and 1,000 lashes in 2014. His wife and children have lived in Canada since 2015, and his case drew widespread international attention, with human rights groups calling on then-prime minister Justin Trudeau to publicly advocate for his release.

    In the wake of the 2018 dispute, more than 1,000 Saudi medical trainees and residents were ordered to leave Canada within weeks to continue their training elsewhere, a move that sparked chaos for both the trainees and Canadian healthcare systems. In some Canadian hospitals, Saudi trainee doctors made up as much as 85% of the resident physician workforce, providing care to patients under Canada’s publicly funded universal healthcare system. For decades, Saudi Arabia had operated a postgraduate training program that allowed its medical graduates to receive specialized training in Canada as visa trainees.

    Diplomatic ties only began to heal after Samar Badawi was released from prison in 2021 and Raif Badawi was released in 2022. Full diplomatic relations were formally restored, with ambassadors reappointed to both Ottawa and Riyadh, in May 2023. Both Badawi siblings remain subject to a Saudi travel ban, preventing them from leaving the kingdom to join family abroad.

  • The Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

    The Englishwoman who sketched India before photography took hold

    Decades before photography emerged as the dominant visual medium of British colonial rule in South Asia, a sharp-eyed and talented English artist and writer named Emily Eden traversed northern India, documenting the vast diversity of people she encountered with a curiosity and attention to detail rare among her 19th-century contemporaries.

    Born into one of Britain’s most politically powerful families, Eden journeyed across the Indian subcontinent between 1836 and 1842, accompanying her brother George Eden, the first Earl of Auckland and then Governor-General of India, on his official travels. Unlike many European artists of the era who focused almost exclusively on elite imperial figures or grand colonial landscapes, Eden’s sketchbook captured a far broader cross-section of Indian society: from ruling maharajas and Afghan nobles to Akali Sikh warriors, court servants, traveling Himalayan traders, common travelers, holy fakirs, hill communities, and even the exotic animals that moved with imperial processions.

    This extraordinary body of work is now the centerpiece of *Princes & People*, a new exhibition at Delhi’s DAG gallery curated by prominent art historian Mary Ann Prior. The show brings together the full published series of hand-colored lithographs created from Eden’s original field sketches, which were first released to the public in 1844 under the title *Portraits of the Princes and People of India*.

    Eden’s experience of India was not without struggle. When she first disembarked in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in March 1836, she was thrown into a chaotic schedule of official events and overwhelmed by the alien culture around her. Deeply homesick and disoriented, she did not pick up her sketching tools for three weeks, and waited two months before completing her first finished painting. Her small traveling party, which included her sister Fanny, nephew William, maids, a personal nurse, cook, valet, physician, and a collection of pets, helped lift her mood and adapt to her new surroundings.

    As Prior notes, the sea voyage to India had already begun to expand Eden’s creative perspective, as she encountered new communities, customs, and ways of life long before reaching shore. “The diversity of people and places motivated and improved Emily’s artistic output, and her natural curiosity sought out the unusual. She meticulously documented her observations through her sketches and paintings,” Prior explains. Rejecting the familiar European subjects of castles, churches, and pastoral English landscapes that dominated contemporary British art, Eden turned her full attention to the strangers, vibrant traditional costumes, distinct architecture, and uncharted landscapes that surrounded her.

    Traveling across northern India at a moment of massive impending political upheaval on the subcontinent, Eden’s sketches offer a uniquely intimate, unfiltered glimpse into a world on the brink of change. Most notably, her work captures the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, whose powerful Punjab Kingdom stood as one of the most influential states in South Asia at the time, documenting the final years of his reign just as the Victorian era began to reshape the region’s political future. She also sketched exiled Afghan Amir Dost Mohammad Khan and his family during their exile in India following British intervention in Kabul, offering a rare visual record of a key figure in the 19th-century “Great Game” rivalry between Britain and Russia for control of Central Asia.

    Beyond her skill as a visual artist, Eden was a gifted and engaging writer. Her lively personal journals are filled with dry humor and sharp observational detail, with place and personal names transcribed phonetically as they sounded to her English ear. Upon arriving in the holy city of Benares (now Varanasi), for example, her traveling party sailed along the Ganges before journeying to Ramnagar, where the local ruler maintained a country estate. The scene so captured Eden’s imagination that she wrote in her journal: “We mean to keep our steamer here and to go out sketching in it.”

    That warm enthusiasm took time to develop. In her first months in India, the deep cultural divide between her native England and her new home left Eden longing for her old life. She chafed at the heat, persistent mosquitoes, constant cacophony of street and wild animals, and the social customs that felt alien to her, confining her indoors for much of each day. But as months passed, she began drawing prolifically, and her work quickly found an audience: her paintings sold briskly at charity fairs in Shimla, won praise from the British colonial community, and were even copied by local Indian artists.

    Prior ranks Eden’s Indian sketches among the finest works produced by any British woman artist of the Regency and Victorian eras. Only two other British women artists working in India—botanical painter Charlotte Canning and later travel artist Marianne North—matched the scope and quality of her achievement, she says.

    Even as her observational skills and curiosity set her apart, Eden still reflected the common colonial biases of her social class and era. She held an unwavering belief in Britain’s so-called “civilising mission” in India, framing her years on the subcontinent as “an unwelcome ordeal to be endured for a higher purpose,” as Prior writes, and viewed colonial rule as a necessary obligation to “civilise” the country.

    The Eden family left India for Britain in 1842, eager to return to their home. Back in Europe, Emily continued to paint, but the urgent drive that pushed her to document unfamiliar people and landscapes in India had faded. Her later works were far fewer in number, and focused on the familiar English landscapes she had grown up with. Increasingly, writing became the medium through which she shared her Indian experiences with a broader British audience: her collection of lively travel letters *Up the Country* was published in 1866, followed by *Letters from India* in 1872. Though Emily Eden died in 1869, her reputation has outlasted the initial association of her work with her family’s role in the First Afghan War, and today her legacy rests on her own independent accomplishments as both a writer and a visual artist.

  • Russia open to Turkey selling S-400 air defence systems to UAE, sources say

    Russia open to Turkey selling S-400 air defence systems to UAE, sources say

    For nearly six years, Turkey’s 2019 acquisition of Russian-made S-400 air defense systems has been a persistent thorn in bilateral relations between Ankara and Washington, derailing Turkey’s participation in the U.S.-led F-35 fifth-generation fighter jet program and triggering sweeping U.S. sanctions on Turkey’s defense industrial base. To this day, six F-35 jets earmarked for Turkey remain locked in U.S. storage, blocked from transfer by 2020 U.S. legislation that mandates Turkey fully relinquish its S-400 systems before any F-35 handover can proceed. Now, as Ankara and Washington work to reset ties following the 2025 return of Donald Trump to the U.S. presidency, resolving the S-400 impasse and clearing Turkey’s path back to the F-35 program has emerged as one of the most urgent priorities on the bilateral agenda. Multiple sources familiar with ongoing negotiations have told Middle East Eye that the most promising proposal currently on the table is a third-party resale of Turkey’s S-400 systems to the United Arab Emirates – a plan that has received a preliminary green light from Moscow. The Kremlin confirmed last Friday that it is engaged in consultations with Turkey over the potential third-party sale, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov noting that the issue remains highly sensitive and talks will continue in the coming weeks. “Moscow’s response to Turkey’s idea of selling the systems to a third country was: why not?” one anonymous Russian source close to the negotiations shared. “There are still technical and political details that need to be ironed out, and a final decision will ultimately come from President Vladimir Putin.” A core Russian commitment, the source added, is that any final deal would strictly honor the terms of the original 2019 contract between Moscow and Ankara, with Russia set to review all proposed terms before giving final approval. The path to this proposal began 18 months ago, when U.S. and Turkish officials first began exploring potential solutions to the S-400 deadlock. An early plan that would have disabled the systems by removing key components and storing them under joint U.S.-Turkish supervision was ultimately discarded, as it would only have secured a temporary waiver of U.S. sanctions rather than the full permanent lifting Ankara seeks. That rejection opened the door to negotiations over reselling the complete systems to the UAE, talks that have now been ongoing for months, according to Russian and Turkish sources. Turkish officials note that the UAE already has experience operating Russian air defense technology – most notably the Pantsir air defense system – and has actively pursued weapons procurement diversification from multiple global suppliers to bolster its national defense capabilities. Still, the deal faces underlying geopolitical headwinds: one European investor based in the region pointed out that the UAE has ongoing tensions with Russia over Moscow’s military and political support for Iran, which has launched drone and ballistic missile attacks targeting the UAE in recent years. Unlike direct arms sales from Russia to third parties, this proposed Turkey-UAE transaction would not be subject to existing U.S. sanctions, removing a major barrier to completion. Contrary to earlier unconfirmed reports, Moscow has rejected an option to take back the S-400 systems directly from Turkey, making the third-party resale the only viable path forward currently on the table. A planned public announcement by the Turkish government last Friday confirming that talks with a third country were underway was abruptly canceled at the last minute, though sources have not provided details on what prompted the cancellation. Experts and insiders are still parsing Russia’s strategic incentives for backing the deal, with Ankara-based sources speculating that Moscow is likely to seek key concessions from Turkey in exchange for its approval. One key outstanding issue is the renewal of Turkey’s critical natural gas supply deal with Russia, which is currently still under negotiation. All parties stress that no final agreement has been reached, and talks on both the S-400 deal and linked political and energy issues remain ongoing.

  • Twelve men and 12 women enter a Buddhist temple – will the monks help them find love?

    Twelve men and 12 women enter a Buddhist temple – will the monks help them find love?

    Tucked into the misty, forested slopes of South Korea’s Palgongsan Mountain, an 8th-century Buddhist temple has stepped into an unexpected modern role: leading the fight against the country’s decades-long plummeting birth rate. For 30 hours, 24 carefully selected young singles traded crowded city offices and empty social calendars for back-to-back icebreakers, awkward talent shows, and quiet woodland walks, all on a mission to find a partner—with the ultimate goal of boosting the nation’s falling fertility.

    This is no scripted reality dating series. It is a grassroots matchmaking retreat organized by leaders at Donghwasa Temple, who frame their work as a continuation of the temple’s centuries-long history of stepping up during national crisis. “When our country faced external threats, Buddhist communities were always the first to act,” explains Yoo Cheol-ju, the retreat’s host, referencing the temple’s role as a base for monk militias that repelled Japanese invasions in the 16th century. “Today, the crisis is low birth rates, and we could not stand by and do nothing.”

    South Korea’s fertility crisis has deepened steadily alongside the country’s economic growth. By 2023, the national total fertility rate—the average number of children a woman will have over her lifetime—dropped to a record low 0.72, far below the 2.1 replacement rate needed to sustain a stable population. Multiple factors have driven this decline: skyrocketing urban housing costs, insufficient public childcare support, a growing number of women prioritizing independent careers, and a profound shift in social norms that has left many young people with fewer opportunities to meet potential partners.

    Studies confirm that young South Koreans are dating far less than previous generations. While some choose singlehood by choice, millions struggle to connect in a culture where casual small talk with strangers remains rare, dating apps have never gained widespread traction, and traditional social circles through school and work leave little room to meet new people. The South Korean government has spent more than $250 billion on pro-natal policies since 2006, offering expanded parental leave, cash bonuses for new parents, and subsidized housing for newlywed couples. Local governments and community groups have expanded these efforts with grassroots matchmaking events, and Donghwasa Temple’s retreat has emerged as one of the most unusual examples.

    The 24 participants who gathered at the temple beat incredibly competitive odds to attend: more than 1,600 people applied, and just 24 were selected based on application questionnaires and introductory selfie videos that screened for genuine commitment to finding a partner and starting a family. The retreat was open to people of all faiths, and every attendee shared a common experience: repeated difficulty meeting suitable partners.

    Kim Ah-kyung, a 28-year-old who goes by her Buddhist name Sunhyeji, relocated from the Seoul region to a southeastern province for an office job after graduating. “My routine is just work and home,” she explained. “I tried picking up hobbies, but all the activities I found were one-on-one. Everyone at my office is decades older than me. I have literally no chance to meet new men.”

    For 30-year-old Kwon Seung-oh, who goes by the name Enyo, online dating felt uncomfortable and untrustworthy, and 10 blind dates arranged by friends all ended as shallow, unfulfilling encounters. Working at a large dairy factory outside Daegu where 97% of his colleagues are men left him with no organic opportunities to meet women. Like Sunhyeji, he turned to the temple retreat as a last, hopeful option.

    The event kicked off with small, thoughtful gestures that set a warm tone: male participants rushed to greet arriving women and offered to carry their luggage to their rooms. The first day opened with an introduction round, where Enyo won over the crowd by handing out homemade French pastries he baked himself. Participants moved through a carefully structured schedule of one-on-one walks in the temple’s wooded grounds, group lunch dates, a much-anticipated (and slightly awkward) talent show, and speed dating rounds held over freshly brewed green tea that most participants were too nervous to drink.

    The talent show brought unexpected charm and chaos: a 32-year-old civil servant named Minho recreated the choreography for 2PM’s hit K-pop track *My House*, Sunhyeji grooved to a recent chart-topping pop single, Enyo belted a heartfelt ballad, a 28-year-old designer named Ruby wowed the crowd with a halting but endearing Spanish introduction, and one attendee played a flute solo from the animated film *KPop Demon Hunters*. By the end of the non-stop activities, most participants were exhausted, but the event pressed on to the final matching round.

    By the close of the 30-hour retreat, eight couples had formed—including two matches between event staff and participants—meaning 16 of the 24 attendees left with a potential romantic partner. While some left disappointed: Enyo was not selected by any participants, and Sunhyeji missed out on a match with Minho, who ultimately paired with Ruby, most walked away with meaningful gains even without a romantic connection.

    Sunhyeji, who stayed up until 3 a.m. gossiping with other female attendees, said she left with a close circle of new friends and a plan to meet for brunch in the coming weeks. “This felt like a fun sleepover, like being a teenager again,” she said. “I felt free to be spontaneous and bold, something I never get to be at work.” Enyo, while disappointed not to find a match, said he would jump at the chance to attend another retreat if organizers invited him back. Even the single attendees who left without a romantic match have continued to meet regularly, for casual meals and drinks that they never would have had without the retreat.

    After years of continued decline, South Korea’s birth rate has begun to edge upward slowly: the national average fertility rate is projected to hit 1.0 in 2026, up from 0.72 in 2023 and 0.8 in 2025. Officials attribute this small shift to pandemic-related delays to weddings and births, as well as a large demographic cohort of children of baby boomers reaching childbearing age. But community organizers like the monks of Donghwasa Temple point to a subtle shift in attitudes: a March 2026 survey found unmarried South Koreans are nearly 10% more favorable to marriage and parenthood than they were just two years ago, a shift many attendees linked to seeing more friends share wedding and baby announcements on social media. For the monks leading this unusual retreat, the mission is as much about shifting cultural attitudes as it is about matching couples—one awkward talent show and woodland walk at a time.

  • New dinosaur species with neck as long as cricket pitch discovered in Thailand

    New dinosaur species with neck as long as cricket pitch discovered in Thailand

    A groundbreaking paleontological discovery from northeastern Thailand has reshaped scientific understanding of sauropod dinosaur distribution across Asia, with researchers confirming the identification of an entirely new species that roamed the planet 150 million years ago. The new herbivorous species, named *Uragasaurus kalasinensis*, is a member of the Mamenchisauridae family — a group of massive sauropods defined by their extraordinarily elongated necks — and was uncovered from fossil deposits in Kalasin Province’s Phu Noi site.

    The story of the discovery stretches back to 2008, when a local resident stumbled upon unusual fossil fragments that looked like serpent scales, leading to the formal identification of the Phu Noi dig site. For more than 15 years, research teams from Mahasarakham University have systematically excavated the site, which has proven to be a rich Late Jurassic fossil bed where over 90 percent of recovered remains belong to various dinosaur species. While exploring the site, the team uncovered a range of fossilized teeth and bones, but it was a single well-preserved dorsal vertebra — a bone from the middle to upper back — that held the key to the new species identification, bearing distinct, never-before-documented anatomical features.

    Detailed CT scanning of the fossil confirmed its placement within Mamenchisauridae, a sauropod group whose members typically evolved extremely long necks to access vegetation across a wide range of heights, allowing them to exploit multiple food sources without repositioning their massive bodies. Prior to this find, nearly all confirmed Mamenchisauridae fossils had been discovered in China, making this the first confirmed instance of the family in Thailand. Scans also revealed unique structural traits, including a Y-shaped arrangement of supporting bone layers called laminae and a one-of-a-kind air cavity system that has not been observed in any other known dinosaur species.

    Dr. Apirat Nilphanaphan, lead researcher on the project from Mahasarakham University, shared his reaction to the discovery with BBC Thai, explaining that he was so excited when he confirmed the find that he accidentally broke his keyboard, describing the moment as a mix of overwhelming exhilaration and long-awaited relief. The team’s research was published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature earlier this week. This discovery marks the second new species of large long-necked herbivorous dinosaur identified in Thailand in 2026, following the announcement of *Nagatitan* in May. That species, which tipped the scales at an estimated 27 tonnes — equal to the weight of nine adult Asian elephants — and stretched 27 meters long, is currently the largest dinosaur ever discovered in Southeast Asia.

    Paleontologists note that the back-to-back discoveries at Thai dig sites highlight the region’s understudied role in Jurassic dinosaur evolution, suggesting that Southeast Asia hosted far more diverse sauropod populations during the Late Jurassic than previously assumed.

  • Global oil demand is dropping, but US drivers keep buying more gas

    Global oil demand is dropping, but US drivers keep buying more gas

    NEW YORK – The International Energy Agency (IEA) has projected that global oil demand will experience an annual decline in 2026, marking the first such drop since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The projected contraction, estimated at 1 million barrels per day for the full year, stems from elevated energy prices and unevenly distributed supply disruptions rooted in the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran.

    The core of the supply disruption centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil and gas shipments. For more than three months, dozens of crude-laden tankers have remained stranded in the Persian Gulf, unable to traverse the waterway safely amid heightened hostilities between the two nations. Today, the strategic passage faces greater uncertainty than at the outbreak of the conflict, according to Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of crude oil research at S&P Global Energy. He noted that while Iran continues efforts to assert full control over the strait, the U.S. has failed to reestablish pre-war shipping norms, making a full return to baseline operations increasingly unlikely.

    Recent demand data underscores the severity of the slowdown. Global average oil demand hit 97.9 million barrels per day in May 2026, a 5.3 million barrel per day drop from the same period one year prior. The steepest declines have been concentrated in Asia, a region heavily dependent on Middle Eastern energy imports. China alone accounts for a 1.5 million barrel per day reduction in demand – a 9% year-over-year drop, the largest of any major global economy.

    China’s demand cutback stems from a deliberate policy decision to draw down its large strategic reserves rather than purchase crude at inflated market prices during the spring crisis, Burkhard explained. The country cut its crude import volumes by roughly 50 percent, temporarily halting additions to its strategic petroleum reserve that had previously averaged nearly 1 million barrels per day, according to Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. The conflict has also accelerated existing demand trends tied to China’s rapid electric vehicle adoption, which is cutting into gasoline and diesel consumption. Sternoff projects that China could see a permanent reduction of between 500,000 and 600,000 barrels per day in road fuel demand from this transition alone.

    Counter to the global trend, the United States has seen unexpected growth in gasoline consumption during the second quarter of 2026, even as average pump prices rose 50% above pre-war levels to top $4.50 per gallon of regular gasoline in May, AAA data shows. Analysts point to two key factors for this anomaly: the share of U.S. household income devoted to gasoline has trended downward for decades, meaning even large price increases have a muted impact on driving behavior for most consumers. Additionally, the ongoing shift from remote work back to in-office office commutes has increased overall travel demand, offsetting any pullback from price sensitivity. “Even though it’s a really political price that people pay a lot of attention to, if you are in the higher quintiles of income in the U.S., you might grumble about it, but you’re not really driving less just because of that increase in prices,” Sternoff said.

    The conflict has also created a paradoxical dynamic in global oil pricing that has prevented the sharp price spikes many market observers initially predicted. A fragile ceasefire reached in June allowed stranded tankers to exit the Strait of Hormuz, flooding the market with additional crude and pushing prices lower. Even when tensions escalated again earlier this month, prices failed to spike, as the conflict has settled into a predictable “gray zone” that no longer shocks markets, according to Burkhard. Reduced overall global demand, led by China’s cutbacks, has also kept upward price pressure in check. Additional supply-side constraints have hit downstream markets: multiple Russian refineries have been knocked offline by Ukrainian drone strikes, and Middle Eastern refining capacity remains damaged from the wider regional conflict, leaving refined product prices for gasoline and diesel far more inflated than crude prices. “There’s this gush of supply of crude oil being made available to the market, and there’s simply less demand for that crude oil,” Burkhard summed up.

  • Smotrich: Steve Witkoff called Gaza Palestinians ‘two million Nazis’

    Smotrich: Steve Witkoff called Gaza Palestinians ‘two million Nazis’

    A firestorm of controversy has erupted in Israeli and Middle Eastern political circles after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich publicly alleged that a senior U.S. envoy made extraordinarily inflammatory remarks describing all two million residents of the Gaza Strip as “Nazis” during a closed-door meeting last year. The explosive claim was made by Smotrich during a public conference in Israel this Thursday, where he also repeated longstanding expansionist rhetoric that has drawn international condemnation for human rights violations.

    According to Smotrich’s account, the conversation took place shortly after U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff completed a visit to Gaza last August, a period marked by intense Israeli military operations and mounting global alarm over humanitarian conditions in the enclave. Smotrich stated that he, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, and Witkoff reviewed a pre-prepared propaganda video during the closed meeting. After viewing the footage, Smotrich claims Witkoff turned to him and stated: “Bezalel, I will not let two million Nazis live next to your children on fences.”

    The allegation is particularly striking given the public framing of Witkoff’s 2024 Gaza trip. A former real estate property lawyer with no prior professional experience in foreign policy or humanitarian work, Witkoff publicly positioned his visit as a mission to advance a plan for delivering desperately needed food and medical aid to Gaza’s civilian population. At the time of his visit, Israel had imposed sweeping restrictions on the entry of food, fuel and other essential goods into Gaza, a policy that the United Nations and multiple humanitarian organizations have warned has driven a large share of Gaza’s population into acute famine and food insecurity.

    Beyond the explosive claim about Witkoff, Smotrich used the conference platform to double down on his longstanding ultranationalist expansionist agenda, calling for permanent Israeli territorial annexation of parts of Lebanon. He argued that “There is only one thing that hurts the enemy – land. Whoever messes with us will lose land for ever. A security zone needs to be created for years in Lebanon,” adding in a separate conversation with journalist Amit Segal that Israel would ultimately need to formalize permanent control over captured Lebanese territory.

    This latest rhetoric aligns with Smotrich’s repeated public calls for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian residents from Gaza to make way for new Jewish Israeli settlements. Last December, he stated publicly: “We cannot live with two million antisemitic Nazis who live off hatred of Israel … That is why we need to encourage their emigration and settle Gaza.” Months earlier, he claimed former U.S. President Donald Trump backed a plan to remove Gazans from the enclave, saying “He supports his own plan of removing the Gazans from Gaza, so our kids won’t have to grow up within a spitting distance from two million Nazis who want to butcher, murder and rape.”

    Smotrich already faces mounting international legal scrutiny over his actions in occupied Palestinian territories. Independent regional outlet Middle East Eye has reported that the prosecutor’s office of the International Criminal Court has submitted a sealed application for an arrest warrant against Smotrich, covering alleged crimes committed in the occupied West Bank. The proposed charges listed in the application include forced displacement, forced population transfer, persecution, and apartheid, according to the outlet’s reporting.

    Middle East Eye confirmed that it reached out to the White House for comment on Smotrich’s allegation against Witkoff, requesting confirmation of whether the remarks were made. No response from the White House had been received by the time of the outlet’s publication. The outlet, which provides independent, on-the-ground coverage of the Middle East and North Africa region, did not immediately offer independent verification of Smotrich’s claim.

  • Israeli and Egyptian military officials ‘watched Argentina match together’ during Cairo meeting

    Israeli and Egyptian military officials ‘watched Argentina match together’ during Cairo meeting

    High-stakes diplomatic and military discussions between senior Israeli defense officials and their Egyptian counterparts unfolded in Cairo this week, framed by Israeli public media as a wide-ranging strategic dialogue centered on evolving regional tensions, the crisis in Gaza, and expanded bilateral security collaboration.

    Israeli public broadcaster Kan News reports that the negotiations focused on aligning policy coordination between the two nations, even as frictions persist over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Egypt has long been positioned as a central mediator between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and is expected to play a defining role in shaping Gaza’s political and administrative future once hostilities end. In a rare informal moment during the visit, the delegations reportedly watched Egypt’s 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Argentina together.

    Israel and Egypt have maintained formal diplomatic ties since the historic 1979 Camp David peace treaty, with cross-border security and joint military cooperation serving as the cornerstone of their bilateral relationship. In recent months, however, relations have been strained by Israel’s large-scale military operation in Gaza, which Egyptian authorities have warned risks triggering widespread instability along Egypt’s northeastern border with the enclave.

    Per Kan’s reporting, the primary goal of this week’s meeting was to formalize and strengthen Egypt’s mediation mandate between Israel and Hamas. Israeli officials have noted that Cairo has adopted a notably firmer, more hawkish stance in its negotiations with Hamas in recent weeks. As part of emerging proposals, Egyptian negotiators have offered to pressure Hamas to relinquish its weapons stockpiles, which would be placed under a third-party custodianship arrangement as a core component of a broader postwar governance deal.

    The talks coincided with a landmark political shift within Gaza: Hamas announced this week it will dissolve the administrative body that has governed the blockaded enclave for nearly 20 years. Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Hamas’s government media office, confirmed to Agence France-Presse that Mohammed al-Farra, leader of Hamas’s emergency government committee, has formally submitted his resignation and dissolved the body to clear the way for a handover of power to the newly formed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG).

    The NCAG is a panel of independent Palestinian technocrats based in Gaza, established to manage day-to-day governance of the enclave under a framework agreed in a September 2024 ceasefire deal brokered by the United States, Qatar, and Egypt. Critically, the committee has not been able to enter Gaza to assume its duties and currently operates out of Cairo amid ongoing Israeli military operations.

    These political developments unfold against a backdrop of persistent violence in Gaza, even after a temporary ceasefire was announced in October 2024. Data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirms that Israeli forces have killed at least 1,092 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire went into effect. Since the start of Israel’s full-scale military campaign in October 2023, the total Palestinian death toll in the enclave has surpassed 73,000, according to ministry figures.