Search
AI-powered search, human-powered content.
scroll to top arrow or icon

{{ subpage.title }}

A gas station in Düsseldorf, Germany, on June 10, 2025.

IMAGO/Michael Gstettenbauer via Reuters Connect

HARD NUMBERS: Oil prices spike, China stops drinking, BTS eyes reunion, and more…

12%: Oil prices spiked 12% in early trading on Friday following Israel’s attacks on Iran, reflecting fears that a wider Middle East conflict could restrict access to crude exports. Later in the morning prices softened slightly, but were still up nearly 9%, to more than $75 per barrel.

Read moreShow less

Saudi Arabia's oil price problem

In the first quarter of 2025, Saudi Arabia reported a budget deficit of $15.7 billion—the highest figure since 2021. A big part of the reason is that Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is investing substantial financial resources in Vision 2030, a sweeping, decade-old development initiative designed to diversify the nation’s economy away from hydrocarbons.

However, with slumping oil prices and even higher spending, Saudi Arabia may have to scale back some of its more ambitious investment plans. In April, reports surfaced that the kingdom was drastically cutting its plans for Neom—a $1.5 trillion infrastructure project aimed at constructing a utopian megacity in the desert.

Here’s a look at how global oil prices have stacked up against Saudi Arabia’s fiscal breakeven price—the level needed to balance the state budget—since 2008.

Saudi Arabian flag with stock graph and an oil pump jack miniature model are seen in this illustration.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic

Saudis face reality on oil prices

Saudi Arabia has reportedly decided toproduce more oil beginning Dec. 1, allowing global crude prices to fall. It’s an admission that increased oil production in the United States and other non-OPEC members has combined with lower oil demand from China to drop prices well below the level the Saudis would prefer. By producing more, the Saudis hope to claim a larger share of oil market revenues.
Read moreShow less

Oil rig around the US Capitol.

Jess Frampton

The greatest energy boom you’ve never heard of

“A few years ago, we were energy independent, now we’re begging countries to give us gasoline.” —Former president Donald Trump

“Joe Biden has destroyed US energy independence.” —Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN)

“Since Joe Biden’s first day in office, he has waged an unprecedented war on American energy producers.” —House GOP

If we are to believe Republican politicians, President Joe Biden is waging a debilitating “war” on American energy. But is that true?

Not quite. After having to import massive amounts of foreign energy for most of its modern history, the United States became energy independent in 2019 – when Donald Trump happened to be president – thanks to the decades-long fracking and shale revolution. Domestic oil and gas production dipped briefly during the pandemic as global demand collapsed, but it quickly bounced back under President Biden.

Read moreShow less

A police officer gets his shoes shined as he and fellow officers stand outside the prosecutor's office before the arrival of Peru's President Dina Boluarte, in Lima, Peru March 7, 2023.

REUTERS/Gerardo Marin

Hard Numbers: Peru declares crime emergency, EU cuts Somalia aid, Chinese weddings dwindle, McCarthy tests his majority, oil prices surge

160,200: Peruvian President Dina Boluarte declared a state of emergency in two districts of the capital, Lima, and one in the northern city of Talara amid a devastating wave of violent crime. Lima police collected 160,200 crime reports last year, up 33% from 2021, part of a larger spike in violence in South America.

Read moreShow less

Trader Warren Meyers watches the Fed Rate announcement on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

REUTERS

Breather for the Fed?

For background, the Fed has been bumping up rates since March 2022, when pandemic-related stimulus and supply chain kinks were driving annual price growth towards 9%, a 40-year high.

But these days things are looking rosier. The latest data show annual price growth in May was just 4%, almost a full point below April’s clip. It’s the 11th consecutive month that inflation has fallen.

Read moreShow less

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Reuters

Is the US trying to patch things up with Saudi?

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled on Tuesday to Saudi Arabia for a three-day trip, marking the second high-level US visit to the kingdom over the past month.

While few have expectations of a large breakthrough in a relationship that's been underpinned by awkward exchanges and tense standoffs for some time, Blinken is likely hoping to bolster waning trust.

Read moreShow less

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

Reuters

Maduro’s not going anywhere. What comes next for Venezuela?

Just four years ago, most observers would have bet good money that Nicolás Maduro’s days at the top were numbered.

In 2018, Venezuela’s strongman president had declared himself the winner after a reelection battle that was broadly considered to be rigged. Maduro’s subsequent crackdown on anti-government protesters made him one of the world’s most reviled and isolated leaders.

It’s now been 10 years since Maduro, the foreign minister at the time, was handed the top job, and his power is more entrenched than ever. How has the Venezuelan despot survived and what might this mean for the country's politics and its people?

Meet Maduro. A former bus driver from Caracas, Maduro got his political training as a young man in Cuba. Upon returning to Venezuela, he became a big shot in the union movement and in leftist politics as a member of the United Socialist Party.

Read moreShow less

Subscribe to our free newsletter, GZERO Daily

Latest