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Supertanker Rates Hit $800,000 a Day as Gulf Tensions Escalate

Supertanker rates on the Baltic Exchange's benchmark Middle East-to-China shipping route have surged to a staggering $800,000 a day. With US forces having destroyed five Iranian-linked tankers and Tehran threatening further escalation in recent days, prospects for near-term stabilization remain limited. The freight surge signals that crude oil and refined products continue to flow but are becoming increasingly costly to transport out of the Gulf region to global markets. According to Bloomberg, US Gulf-to-Asia shipments on very large crude carriers…

OilPrice.comOilPrice.com•OilPrice.com11 Sept

Pakistan: Anti-Terrorism Bill Threatens Fair Trials

Click to expand Image The Supreme Court of Pakistan in Islamabad, Pakistan, June 20, 2022.  © 2022 Anjum Naveed/AP Photo (New York) – The Punjab provincial assembly in Pakistan on August 31, 2026, passed a bill that would threaten the right to a fair trial in counterterrorism proceedings, Human Rights Watch said today. The provincial governor should return the bill to the assembly, which should develop rights-respecting protections for such proceedings, subject to independent oversight. The Anti-Terrorism (Punjab Amendment) Bill 2026 authorizes unspecified government officials to designate “special security cases” in which the identities of judges, prosecutors, police officers, witnesses, and defense lawyers could be withheld from defendants. The proposed law, which amends the 1997 Anti-Terrorism Act, would allow identifying witnesses by codes and holding proceedings at secret locations or through video links, including from prisons. “Protecting witnesses and court officials from possible harm is essential, but it’s no excuse to deprive defendants of their right to a fair trial,” said Patrica Gossman, senior associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Punjab and other provincial assemblies in Pakistan should ensure that all their criminal laws, including counterterrorism legislation, meet international due process standards.” Human rights groups and political opposition leaders have raised concerns that the secrecy surrounding trial proceedings could impair defendants’ access to evidence needed for an effective appeal, and that the proposed law’s insufficiently defined authority could be used against political opponents, peaceful protesters, and other people. The Punjab government has defended the legislation as necessary to combat militant groups, citing inadequate witness protection and security as obstacles to prosecutions. Militant groups have carried out hundreds of attacks across Pakistan in recent years, killing both civilians and security personnel. The authorities should address those risks through adequate protection measures that preserve defendants’ ability to challenge evidence, consult their lawyers confidentially, and appeal convictions, Human Rights Watch said. Pakistan’s Constitution guarantees the rights to a fair trial and due process. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Pakistan is a party, ensures the right to a fair and public hearing before an independent, impartial tribunal, along with rights to prepare a defense, examine prosecution witnesses, and seek review of a conviction. The ICCPR permits excluding the public from trials in specified circumstances, including legitimate national security grounds. However, complete secrecy and denial of information to a defendant in criminal proceedings would not fall within the ambit of that exclusion. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, the independent international body that provides authoritative interpretation of the covenant, has specifically warned against “faceless” judges in counterterrorism proceedings, finding that tribunals combining such secrecy with restrictions on defense rights do not meet basic fair trial standards, including independence and impartiality. Human Rights Watch has previously opposed Pakistan’s use of sweeping counterterrorism powers on several occasions, including the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance in 2014, because of threats to fundamental rights, and the use of overbroad terrorism charges in 2023 against opposition supporters engaged in peaceful protest. Punjab’s government should revisit the law and hold broad consultations with human rights advocates and lawyers on protections based on demonstrable risks in individual cases. Any restrictions should be necessary, proportionate, open to independent scrutiny, and compatible with an effective defense, Human Rights Watch said. “Victims of terrorist acts are entitled to justice, but justice can’t be achieved by denying others a fair trial,” Gossman said. “The Punjab government should ensure that the proposed law is replaced by one that protects the public without sacrificing basic rights.”

Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch•Human Rights Watch11 Sept

AI Boom to Boost Southeast Asia’s LNG Demand

Demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Southeast Asia has found a new major driver apart from the years-long efforts to switch away from coal-fired power generation. The AI boom and the data center construction in Asia are set to materially change Southeast Asia’s LNG demand outlook with a significant upside, as combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT) remain the most reliable 24/7 power provider for hyperscalers amid relatively immature renewable energy-plus-batteries across the region, analysts at Wood Mackenzie say. As a result of the higher…

OilPrice.comOilPrice.com•Tsvetana Paraskova11 Sept

Tony Gatlif obituary

Algerian-born French director of more than 20 films that celebrated Roma culture The French film director Tony Gatlif, who has died aged 77, was regularly described as “cinema’s Gypsy auteur”, so often did his films focus on Roma communities and their music. Between 1975 and 2025, Gatlif directed more than 20 films, beginning with La Tête en Ruine (The Ruined Head). That film was never released, and he struggled throughout the 1970s and 80s to get funding for his films, and then to find a distributor, before finally breaking through with Latcho Drom (1993, the title being Romany for “good journey”). An international arthouse hit, Latcho Drom is a meditative travelogue that blends footage of staged musical performances in contemporary Roma communities in Istanbul, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, France and Spain, with historic recreations of such communities in Rajasthan and an Egyptian oasis. Latcho Drom conveys the centuries-long migration from Asia to western Europe of a nomadic people we now call Gypsies or Roma, as a fable told entirely in images and music. There is no voiceover, talking heads or text; instead Gatlif lets the striking settings and musical performances enchant viewers. It is an idealised portrait of the Roma, not a documentary (as some labelled it), and while Gatlif portrays the discrimination and persecution Roma communities experience, his emphasis was on celebrating Roma beauty and artistry. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Garth Cartwright10 Sept

Call My Agent! The Movie review – the gang get back together and c’est formidable

The screwball French comedy is back as a film that actually works, thanks to putting Andréa and Noémie at the heart of chaotic events and bringing all the old faces back At last: a beloved-TV-show-to-film-spinoff that doesn’t suck! The original French series is a screwball-speed office comedy about a boutique Parisian talent agency, and was a ratings and critical success in its homeland when it started back in 2015. Its acquisition by Netflix grew the audience internationally and spawned a stable full of remakes across Europe and Asia. In the meantime, several members of the original French cast have become proper stars in their own right, especially Camille Cottin and Laure Calamy, and this sequel, set five years on, is smart to put these two at the heart of the latest instalment. And of course, there are the obligatory turns from properly famous actors playing themselves, including Laetitia Casta, Vincent Macaigne, Laurent Lafitte and some guy named George Clooney, best known these days for appearances on vaporettos in the Venice lagoon. Like many great sitcoms, this one always understood that failure, rather than success, keeps the wider narrative arc more interesting and relatable. So the last episode of the series left the gang at talent agency ASK (which stood for Agence Samuel Kerr, after the founder, who died in the first episode), dispersed to new gigs and careers; the band, in effect, broke up. Five years on, the stars have aligned to bring them all back together to work on Andréa (Cottin) and Noémie’s (Calamy) new film project, so the title Call My Agent! The Movie works on more than one level. Continue reading...

The GuardianThe Guardian•Leslie Felperin9 Sept