Investigations

The Oil Traders in the Shadows

Vitol, Trafigura, Mercuria, Gunvor: $343 billion of turnover, eight million barrels a day, forty-five billion dollars of five-year profit — and a bribery ledger in the hundreds of millions. The private partnerships that move a tenth of the world's oil, own no fields, and answer to no one.

Three Companies Grade the World. Nobody Elected Them.

Moody's, S&P and Fitch control roughly ninety-five percent of the world's credit ratings. Their letters decide what nations pay to borrow — and the people being graded have to pay for the grade. By Younesse Bouziani, Editor-in-Chief.

The Four Firms That Grade Global Capitalism — and Answer to No One

Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG: more than two hundred and twenty billion dollars of combined revenue, ninety-eight percent of Britain's biggest audits, and a failure record that spans four continents. Who watches the watchmen? By Younesse Bouziani, Editor-in-Chief.

The Four Ports That Rule World Trade

Four companies run the gates through which most of world trade passes. Two answer to governments, one to a billionaire, one to a sovereign wealth fund — and the fight over who owns the gates just detonated in Panama. By Younesse Bouziani, Editor-in-Chief.

Three Flags Fly Nearly Half the World's Ships

Liberia, Panama and the Marshall Islands govern the vessels that carry the world's trade — more than four in ten tons of it. The flags are for sale, the registers are run from America, and the ships are owned in Greece, China and Japan. Who really governs the ships that carry the world? By Younesse Bouziani, Editor-in-Chief.

The Two Companies Without Which the World Stops

TSMC prints seventy percent of the world's chips; ASML builds the only machines that can print them. Ninety-two percent of advanced logic sits on one island. The tightest chokepoint in the global economy. By Younesse Bouziani, Editor-in-Chief.

The Three Funds That Own Everything

BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street: thirty-one trillion dollars under management, the largest shareholder in 88% of the S&P 500, and a vote that never leaves the room. They cannot sell — so they vote. With your money. By Younesse Bouziani, Editor-in-Chief.

The Metals Monopoly: Who Really Owns the Energy Transition

Nine of every ten rare earths pass through Chinese refineries. Half the world's heavy rare earths come from rebel-held mines in Myanmar. The DRC just halved the cobalt the world can buy. By Khalid Al Harbi.

The Five Pyramids: Who Controls the Ground Beneath the Harvest

Who decides whether the world eats? We started with the three letters that feed eight billion people — N, P, K — and kept going: four companies hold the genetics, five traders move the grain, and the land and water themselves are being bought. Five pyramids, each narrowing to a handful of hands. By Younesse Bouziani.

Strait of Hormuz: The Arithmetic of Closure

What does a Hormuz closure actually cost? We ran the numbers on a Hormuz closure: twenty million barrels a day through one 33-kilometre throat — spare capacity, shadow fleets, and the insurance math, in full. By Khalid Al Harbi.

The Settlement Grid: Life After the Dollar's Plumbing

The discovery: the parallel rails are already installed. mBridge, CIPS, UPI, PIX — inventoried piece by piece. Nobody is demolishing the dollar. They are making it unnecessary. By Khalid Al Harbi.

The Two Chokepoints Inside Every Chip

How did the digital century come to balance on three addresses? We mapped them: one Dutch company prints the machines, one Taiwanese company prints the chips, China refines the graphite. Three owners, three vulnerabilities. By Malika Ahardane.

The Smelter Trap: Why Owning the Mine Is Not Enough

Who really owns the world's copper? We traced the copper supply chain beyond the mine and found the answer is the furnace, not the hole in the ground. Smelter fees at historic lows, Western ore shipped east. By Malika Ahardane.