In 2007, investments in risky US mortgages went sour as homeowners struggled to pay. Funds run by Bear Stearns, BNP Paribas and other banks either had to freeze the ability of investors to take out their money, or liquidate the funds completely.

These problems were the canaries in what proved to be a very deep financial coal mine. As nervousness spread, even banks eventually stopped lending to each other for fear of not getting their money back, creating a so-called "credit crunch". That caused a global financial crisis.

Fast forward to today.

Several funds which lend money have declared losses or restricted investors' ability to take out their money. BlackRock, Blackstone, Apollo and Blue Owl have all faced demands for billions of withdrawals from private credit funds - institutions that provide an alternative to traditional banks.

The Taiwanese minister in charge of the Coast Guard visited a second Taiwan-controlled islet deep in the South China Sea, she said on April 29, adding that complaints by Vietnam about her trip would not cause any regional tensions.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46577021

“Dr. Abu Safiya is currently held in Negev Prison under harsh conditions, without access to his medication or receiving medical treatment, despite the deterioration of his health,” said the Israeli-based Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

April 28, 2026

A 2025 report from Amnesty International, which has also called for Abu Safiya’s release, said that the Gaza-based physician “was detained in the course of caring for his patients and carrying out his medical duties.”

Amnesty also noted that, prior to his detention, Abu Safiya and other colleagues at the Kamal Adwan Hospital had “provided human rights and humanitarian organizations with reliable information about the health situation” in Gaza, which has been left devastated by years of Israeli attacks that have killed at least 72,000 Palestinians.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/63390485

No paywall

Japan's imports of high-density polyethylene -- used to make plastic bags and containers for food and detergent -- from China swelled roughly 170% on the year in March and were 20% above last year's monthly average, based on Japanese trade data and Chinese customs data.

Polystyrene, with applications including food trays and parts for home appliances, jumped 76% on the year. Overall imports of major plastic feedstocks from China grew 27%.

After importing no butadiene from China since 2021, Japan brought in 1.97 million kilograms in March. Used in tire production, butadiene is a basic chemical for which it is especially difficult to find alternative sources.

Chinese trade data also showed the first exports to Japan in six and a half years of mixed xylene, a key ingredient in paint thinner, which has been in short supply in Japan.

China seems to be faring better. In addition to its more diversified supply chain for crude oil, it has more facilities that can produce chemical feedstocks from coal or from ethane derived from natural gas. The country is making full use of its coal-to-chemicals capacity, tapping into abundant domestic coal reserves.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates said Tuesday it will leave OPEC effective May 1, stripping the oil cartel of its third-largest producer and further weakening its leverage over global oil supplies and prices.

The UAE’s decision had been rumored as a possibility for some time, as it pushed back in recent years against OPEC production quotas it felt had been too low — meaning it wasn’t able to sell as much oil to the world as it had wanted.

“Having invested heavily in expanding energy production capacity in recent years, the bigger picture is that the UAE has been itching to pump more oil,” Capital Economics wrote in an analysis. “The ties binding OPEC members together have loosened,” it said, particularly after Qatar withdrew from the cartel in 2019.

Regional politics are also likely at play. The UAE has had increasingly frosty relations with Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, over political and economic matters in the Mideast, even after both came under attack by fellow OPEC member Iran during the war.

(article continues, clicky linky)

Yep, Iran War's goin' great, all according to keikaku.

(keikaku means plan)

Nearly eight million people in South Sudan are at risk of acute hunger as conflict and displacement worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis, according to a United Nations report.

Published on Tuesday, the report warns that 7.8 million people in the West African country will suffer high levels of food insecurity in the coming months — equivalent to 56 percent of the population.

The Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Programme and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have called on the international community to take immediate action to prevent what they described as an “irreversible humanitarian catastrophe”.

The report states that the number of children aged between six months and five years old who are suffering from acute malnutrition has risen by 100,000 over the past six months, to a total 2.2 million. It estimates that 700,000 children are at grave risk of dying.

After police prevented the main procession, families returned to depopulated villages across the country, keeping alive the memory of what was lost in 1948.

The United Arab Emirates says it is leaving the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and OPEC+ as of Friday, as an unprecedented energy crisis triggered by the Iran war exposes disagreement among Gulf nations.

The U.A.E. has been a longtime member of OPEC — a cartel of leading oil-producing countries — first through its emirate of Abu Dhabi in 1967 and later when it became its own country in 1971. OPEC+ is an alliance with other oil-producing countries created in 2016.

The stunning loss of the U.A.E. could create disarray and weaken the ​group, which has usually sought to show a ​united front despite internal disagreements over a range of issues from geopolitics to production quotas.

WOW!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46550451

27 April 2026 | Last update: 7:10 ET 27 April

As the death toll in Iran rose above 3,500 and the dual blockade of the vital Strait of Hormuz by the US and Iran continues, fossil fuel and weapons companies have seen their profits rise dramatically since the war by the US and Israel began two months ago.

The standoff between the US and Iran in the Strait of Hormuz has left 1,600 vessels and 20,000 seafarers stranded in the Gulf, as Brent crude tops $107 a barrel.

While hitting the pockets of millions in Europe, Asia and worldwide, the war has created big winners. BP's first-quarter profit more than doubled year-on-year to $3.2 billion, the highest for the British oil ‌giant since 2023, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

Recent analysis conducted by climate charity Global Witness for the Guardian found that major oil and gas companies made over $30m an hour in the first month of the war on Iran.

North Korea has increased its use of the death penalty to target those consuming foreign media, especially from South Korea, since the Covid pandemic.

The number of executions and sentencing increased by nearly 117 per cent after Pyongyang closed its borders in January 2020 compared with the five years before, according to a report by the South Korea-based Transitional Justice Working Group.

cross-posted from : https://lemmy.zip/post/63341831

"At some point, Ukraine will sign a ceasefire agreement; at some point, hopefully, a peace treaty with Russia. Then it may ​be that part of Ukraine's territory is no longer Ukrainian," Merz ​told students at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg, a town in ⁠North Rhine-Westphalia, on Monday.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/46530874

April 27, 2026

Five pro-Palestinian activists have appeared in court over an attack on an Israeli arms company in Germany, charged with causing approximately €1m of damage.

Prosecutors say the defendants, aged 25 to 40, trespassed and yelled pro-Palestinian statements as they destroyed office equipment, sensitive measuring devices and smashed windows at a site linked to Elbit Systems in the southern city of Ulm.

The activists published videos online in which they claimed responsibility for the attack, which they said was aimed at drawing attention to Germany’s support for Israel and its military actions in Gaza.