Habib Siddiqui

  The world’s militaries spent $2.88 trillion in 2025, an increase of 2.9 percent from the year before, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) latest report. To put that number into perspective, $2.88 trillion amounts to $350 of military spending for each person on the planet. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Video: Israeli soldiers sing national anthem on ruins of Lebanese town list 2 of 4 What is the NPT, and why has Iran threatened to pull out of the treaty? list 3 of 4 Iran captures two vessels in Strait of Hormuz after ship comes under fire list 4 of 4 How has Iran managed to pierce through Israel’s air defence systems? end of list In this visual explainer, Al Jazeera unpacks the rise of global militarisation, including how much each nation spends, which countries sell the most weapons, and how military spending compares with spending on healthcare and education. The US again tops the list in military spending In 2025, the fi...

  For decades, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) functioned as far more than an oil cartel. For its Gulf members, the organisation embodied a form of collective sovereignty over their primary resource: the capacity of Arab producing states to weigh together on the global economy, defend a shared rent and speak with a coordinated voice to Western consumers. That institutional fiction has just collapsed. When the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced its withdrawal from OPEC and the expanded coalition known as OPEC+, effective May 1, 2026, the immediate reflex was to reach for a technical explanation. Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei carefully dressed the decision in the language of energy policy: flexibility, productive capacity, long-term national interest. Markets noted that the timing, with the Strait of Hormuz partially closed, would limit the immediate price impact. Analysts pointed to the longstanding tension with the quotas imposed on Abu Dhabi Nat...

  Indian-administered Kashmir   – Rashid Ahmad Mughal was barely six when armed rebels barged into their home in Chunt Waliwar village, in Ganderbal district of Indian-administered Kashmir, on a freezing January night in 2000. At about midnight, nearly a dozen armed men broke the window by force and entered the Mughals’ home, where six people were asleep – 23-year-old Ishfaq, his 20-year-old sister Naseema, and younger brothers Ajaz, 8, and Rashid, besides their two cousins. Recommended Stories list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Kashmir seminary declared unlawful under Indian law, sparks outcry list 2 of 4 Three life terms for Kashmir’s Aasiya Andrabi fit India’s ‘broader pattern’ list 3 of 4 Why many Kashmiris are donating gold, breaking piggy banks for Iran list 4 of 4 Gold is unaffordable, so South Asian brides turn to one-gram substitutes end of list The rebels had come looking for Ishfaq, who, the family admitted, worked for the Indian army, which controls the disputed region. “...