The British oil and gas company Shell reported that its profit more than doubled compared to the same period last year. This growth occurred against the backdrop of sharply rising oil prices, triggered by the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz between the US and Iran.
The company's net profit reached $9.84 billion in the second quarter of this year. This coincided with Brent crude prices increasing from $60 per barrel in January to $114 at the beginning of May, which happened at the peak of the conflict.
Shell's CEO noted that the war has led to 'serious disruptions in global energy markets.' The company reported a 30% decrease in production; however, despite these setbacks, or perhaps because of them, Shell's profit doubled in less than a year.
As energy and oil prices rise globally and Shell's margins expand, environmental organizations in the UK are demanding an 'extraordinary tax' on the oil and gas giant. Representatives of these groups stated that 'Europe is engulfed in apocalyptic wildfires, communities across Asia are suffering from devastating floods, and the UK is battling drought and even more dangerous heat.'
They emphasized that these phenomena are not random but represent a defining characteristic of the fossil fuel era. Activists argue that Shell profits while the rest of the population bears the burden of catastrophic consequences. Robert Palmer, deputy director of the Uplift campaign, stated that 'the world is literally burning, and Shell wants to add more fuel.'
A training seminar was organized in Namangan by the Department of Currency Regulation and Control of the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Relevant structural units and specialists from commercial banks involved in foreign economic activity and currency operations took part in the event.
Employees of the Department of Currency Regulation and Control of the Central Bank discussed current problems faced by entrepreneurs conducting export operations to foreign countries and generating income for the country's economy. Opinions on practical difficulties and possible solutions were presented.
At the conference held at the Namangan Branch of the Central Bank, detailed explanations were provided regarding recent changes in legislation regulating currency operations. The procedure for applying regulatory legal acts, as well as issues concerning the acceptance and official documentation of damaged or unusable foreign currency banknotes, were also reviewed.
As part of the seminar, an open dialogue was held with representatives of exporters and manufacturing enterprises in the Namangan region. During this meeting, information was provided about the favorable conditions created by the state, support measures for the industry, and changes being made to regulatory legal documents.
Proposals and problems raised by entrepreneurs during the discussion were carefully discussed, and corresponding recommendations for practical solutions were given. At the end of the seminar, participants received detailed answers to their questions, and the high significance of such practical events was noted.
Investor confidence in the Cape Town Central Business District (CBD) has reached an unprecedented level, as the total value of development projects exceeded R12.8 billion during the 2025/26 period. This figure demonstrates a 41 percent increase compared to the previous year, 2024.
These figures were presented in the fourteenth edition of the Cape Town City State of the City Report (SCCR), which was released by CCID at the Portside building in Cape Town on Wednesday. CCID Communications Manager, Sharon Sorur-Morris, presented the key highlights of the report, including information on 29 real estate projects currently underway in the CBD.
Of the total number of projects, eight have been completed, 14 are under construction, five are in the planning stage, and two are proposed. A significant portion of these investments is directed towards residential construction, with R6.2 billion allocated to new housing developments. Among the major projects are the conversion of the Golden Acre office tower into 450 apartments valued at R1.2 billion and the redevelopment of the former Christiaan Barnard hospital site valued at R1.3 billion, highlighting the trend towards mixed-use living spaces.
The report also showed exceptional results in the retail sector: 172 new retail outlets opened in 2025. The sector maintained an employment rate of 88 percent. The CCID business confidence index for the fourth quarter of 2025 reported that 98 percent of retailers positively assessed the business conditions, which is a noticeable improvement from the previous year.
Key sectors contributing to this growth include legal, medical, and professional fields, as well as the creative economy and tourism. The Cape Town CBD has the lowest office vacancy rate in South Africa, providing a stable environment for businesses. CCID Council Chairman, Rob Cain, noted that the investment figures serve a dual function: they reflect current market confidence and stimulate further investment.
He linked the CBD's success to 26 years of consistent efforts by CCID to maintain a clean, safe, and attractive city center, supported by the Cape Town City leadership. Cain added that strong investor confidence in the CBD is the result of 26 years of CCID's work in creating and preserving a safe, clean, and more appealing city center. He also mentioned that 'Cape Town Executive Mayor Jordyn Hill-Lewis has also played an important role in boosting confidence and creating an environment where investments can thrive.'
During the opening of the ninth annual South African Development Community (SADC) Industrialization Week in Durban, held at the Durban International Convention Centre on Monday, it was emphasized that industrialization remains the most effective path to economic transformation.
This week, Durban hosted the ninth SADC Industrialization Week. Although the event outwardly resembled a standard regional summit where government officials, business delegates, and investors gather for five days of panel discussions and exhibitions, the organizers chose a theme at the heart of one of the continent's most significant economic debates: industrialization based on infrastructure, agriculture, and critical minerals. This debate concerns who will process Africa's minerals and where this processing will take place.
Trade Minister Parks Tau used his opening address to call on the region to move away from raw material exports and begin investing in deep processing, advanced manufacturing, and regional value chains. This idea reflects current debates across the continent. Just two weeks before the event in Durban, African ministers met in Abidjan at a similar forum organized by the African Development Bank, where the message was almost identical: Africa holds about 30% of the world's reserves of vital minerals such as cobalt, lithium, graphite, rare earth metals, and platinum group metals, yet continues to export most of them in an unprocessed form, receiving only a small share of the profits.
The SADC position is particularly important as it is geographically central to solving the problem. The Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia possess cobalt and copper, while Zimbabwe has some of the largest lithium reserves on the continent. South Africa has a unique advantage—established chemical processing infrastructure, research institutes, and a partially developed battery materials industry that most of its neighbors lack. No SADC country possesses the complete set of resources—mines, energy, transport, processing capacity, and financing—to independently transform raw materials into finished battery products. It is this gap that regional value chains are intended to fill, which explains the constant mention of 'regional integration' in Africa's mineral strategic documents.
The mechanism that analysts believe can realize these plans is the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). It creates a market with a population of over 1.3 billion people and is projected to increase intra-African mineral exports by approximately 6% by 2035. This will happen mainly due to the ability to move minerals between countries without tariffs, such as cobalt mined in the DRC and processed at a facility in South Africa, instead of each country trying to create its own isolated processing industry.
The real test of the Durban Industrialization Week is not the exhibitions or the opening ceremony. More important is whether the panel discussions on infrastructure, agriculture, and critical minerals will lead to something more concrete than what was presented in Abidjan two weeks ago. Over the past year, African ministries have repeatedly stated the need for deep processing, but there have been far fewer actual cross-border investments to translate these statements into functioning regional supply chains. If Durban can transform the consensus reached in conference rooms into signed agreements, it will be significant; otherwise, it will join the growing number of forums repeating the same theses.
