Hard Numbers: Malaysian inauguration, US-Venezuela oil thaw, Ukrainians in darkness, another African coup

Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah (R) and newly appointed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (L) take part in the swearing-in ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia's King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah and newly appointed Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim take part in the swearing-in ceremony in Kuala Lumpur.
Mohd Rasfan/Pool via REUTERS

10: Eternal opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was (finally!) sworn in as Malaysia's 10th prime minister. Anwar — who was cheated out of the job twice by his former mentor, ex-PM Mahathir Mohammad, and spent years in prison on bogus sodomy convictions — will have a tough time keeping together a shaky multiethnic coalition.

100,000: US oil giant Chevron hopes to pump as much as 100,000 barrels per day of Venezuelan crude after getting a six-month license from the Biden administration to resume production via PDVSA, the national oil company. This comes as Venezuela's socialist government resumed talks with the opposition in Mexico City.

6 million: That's how many Ukrainians are now without power after the latest flurry of Russian air strikes. As Russia doubles down on targeting Ukraine's infrastructure to make up for its battlefield losses, civilians wonder how they'll make it through the cold winter.

4: At least four people were killed Thursday in a botched coup attempt in São Tomé & Príncipe, a sleepy Central African island nation considered a model for parliamentary democracy in the continent. Whodunit? An opposition leader who contested the result of the last election and a former mercenary who tried to overthrow the government have been arrested.

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Join us via free livestream at the Energy Security Hub at BMW Pavilion Herbert Quandt at the Munich Security Conference and watch our panel on “Geopolitics of Energy Transition and Hydrogen Trade” in cooperation with the German Federal Office and H2-Diplo. The global shift to net zero is no longer just an environmental imperative – it’s reshaping international security and geo-economic dynamics. As new clean energy trade routes emerge, major economies are jockeying for clean industry leadership, navigating critical resource dependencies, supply chain resilience, and infrastructure security. Following this panel, starting at 18:30 (CET) / 12:30 (ET), don’t miss the opportunity to watch the closing keynote by William Chueh, director of Precourt Institute for Energy and associate professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, on “Energy Transition: Speed & Scale.” For these and other forward-thinking panels and discussions in the next two days, register here.