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Weekly oil prices in Brent, OPEC basket, and WTI futures 2020-2025

On June 30, 2025, the Brent crude oil price stood at 66.64 U.S. dollars per barrel, compared to 65.11 U.S. dollars for WTI oil and 68.35 U.S. dollars for the OPEC basket. OPEC prices fell that week as concerns over supply constraints related to the Israel-Iran conflict eased.
Europe's Brent crude oil, the U.S. WTI crude oil, and OPEC's basket are three of the most important benchmarks used by traders as reference for oil and gasoline prices.

In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic resulted in crude oil prices hitting a major slump as oil demand drastically declined following lockdowns and travel restrictions. Initial outlooks and uncertainty surrounding the course of the pandemic brought about a disagreement between two of the largest oil producers, Russia and Saudi Arabia, in early March. Bilateral talks between global oil producers ended in agreement on April 13th, with promises to cut petroleum output and hopes rising that these might help stabilize the oil price in the coming weeks. However, with storage facilities and oil tankers quickly filling up, fears grew over where to store excess oil, leading to benchmark prices seeing record negative prices between April 20 and April 22, 2020.

As with most commodities, crude oil prices are impacted by supply and demand, as well as inventories and market sentiment. However, as oil is most often traded in future contracts (whereby a contract is agreed upon, while the product delivery will follow in the next two to three months), market speculation is one of the principal determinants for oil prices. Traders make conclusions on how production output and consumer demand will likely develop over the coming months, leaving room for uncertainty. Spot prices differ from futures in so far as they reflect the current market price of a commodity.

Roblox most popular games 2025

Town RPG Brookhaven was the most popular Roblox game of all time, with over 67 billion visits as of June 2025. Second-ranked, anime-inspirited Blox Fruits amassed 52.4 billion visits, respectively. Smash hit Grow a Garden was released in March 2025 and has been breaking user records since its release. The farming simulator already ranked ninth among the most-visited Roblox games of all time, three months after release.

Roblox is a free-to-play (F2P) online gaming platform that offers user-generated gaming content and other immersive virtual experiences. Initially released for PC in 2006, the platform is now also available for mobile devices and Xbox One and draws millions of players from across the globe each day. The daily user count for Roblox games reached 88.9 million active players during the third quarter of 2024, and user engagement on Roblox is high. 

While online games are the beating heart of the Roblox platform, and over half of U.S. kids and teens under the age of 16 played the game by mid-2020, the service has also branched out into other forms of online entertainment. For example, Roblox recently introduced private virtual spaces for users to hold meetups, social gatherings, and even birthday parties amid national lockdowns. Young audiences also flock to the platform for virtual concerts and fan meetups as Roblox continues to evolve its live music event portfolio.

U.S. monthly projected recession probability 2021-2026

By April 2026, it is projected that there is a probability of 30.45 percent that the United States will fall into another economic recession. This reflects a significant decrease from the projection of the preceding month.

Most popular NFL teams in the United States 2025

The Miami Dolphins and the Chicago Bears were the most popular NFL franchises in the United States as of the first quarter of 2025. Just under one half of the surveyed respondents in the United States had a positive opinion of the two franchises. Meanwhile, the Philadelphia Eagles, who claimed their Super Bowl title in 2024, were the third most popular NFL team.

The TV viewership of the Super Bowl in the U.S. peaked in 2025 when the Philadelphia Eagles emerged victorious against the Kansas City Chiefs. The game was watched by over 127 million people throughout the country. Meanwhile, the second most watched Super Bowl aired the previous year, in 2023, when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the San Francisco 49ers. 

Since the trophy was first awarded during the inaugural Super Bowl in 1967, six players have won the MVP award more than once. Tom Brady was the player with the most Super Bowl MVP Awards as of 2024, having won the award a record five times. Joe Montana and Patrick Mahomes followed in the ranking with three wins each.

Global downloads of Shein shopping app 2016-2025

The Chinese fashion e-commerce giant Shein Group has surged to prominence. Founded in 2008 as ZZKKO, it quickly evolved into the world's largest fashion retailer in 2022. Its app attracted almost 81 million downloads worldwide between January 1 and June 29, 2025.

The online-only fast-fashion company has a unique business model. Enabled by algorithms and data analytics, its swift production and fashion trend prediction abilities have set it apart in the fast fashion e-commerce world. Its algorithm-driven supply chain enables it to reduce the production time to 7 days and offer thousands of new items on its site every week at much lower price levels than its competitors.

The fashion retailer also collaborates with numerous fashion bloggers to harness platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Combined with its adept use of social media marketing, SHEIN achieved a staggering 38 billion U.S. dollars in gross merchandise value in 2024. Despite its rapid growth and popularity, Shein's reputation is marred by a barrage of controversies, ranging from labor rights violations and trademark disputes to environmental concerns to health and safety issues.

Most successful K-pop companies in South Korea 2025, by market cap

As of March 2025, the K-pop entertainment HYBE Corporation achieved the highest market cap in the South Korean stock exchange market, at around 13 trillion South Korean won. HYBE Corporation, formerly known as Big Hit Entertainment, is home to the globally popular K-pop group BTS. Having only entered the stock exchange market in 2020, the company has since stayed ahead of its competition.

Vladimir Putin's approval rating in Russia monthly 1999-2025

In June 2025, 86 percent of Russians approved of the activities of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. The popularity level was nine percentage points higher than in September 2022, when the figure declined following the announcement of a partial mobilization in the country. After Russia invaded Ukraine at the end of February 2022, the approval rating increased. During the COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2020, the figure declined. 

Since his first presidential term started in 2000, Vladimir Putin's highest approval rating has been measured at 88 percent, when he was the country's prime minister. In 2008, as a result of the war with Georgia, Russia recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In 2014, Russia annexed the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, viewing it as a historic reunification. Despite Western sanctions that were imposed on the country in response the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the approval rating remained high over the following years. In February and March 2019, among the reasons behind the decline in approval were a pension reform and a retirement age hike.

During his state of-the-nation speech in January 2020, Vladimir Putin suggested amendments to the Russian Constitution, some of which are aimed at restructuring the executive power within the country’s administration. Regarding the amendments, 47 percent of Russians believed that they were designed to prepare the political system for the period after 2024, allowing Putin to stay in power in a role different from a president. In March 2020, an amendment was proposed to the Constitution to reset the previous presidential terms of Putin, allowing him to stay as a president until 2036. The amendments were approved in an all-Russian voting with nearly 78 percent of Russians supporting them.

Most popular supermarket chains in the UK Q1 2025

In the United Kingdom, Sainsbury's, M&S Food, and Aldi were the most popular three supermarket chains in Q1 2025. Sainsbury's topped the ranking with 84 percent of respondents having a positive opinion of the food retailer. M&S Food and Aldi came in second and third places and were popular with 81 percent and 78 percent of those polled in this study, respectively.

The entire UK grocery market was worth almost 227 billion British pounds in 2024, according to estimates. Market leader Tesco operated over 4,300 stores as of May 2025. In comparison, mixed retailer M&S operated close to 1,100 stores in the UK.

M&S is a mixed retailer and sometimes not even included in statistics about the UK grocery market. When viewed as a grocery store, the company had a market share of slightly over three percent as of August 2021. Compared to other grocery and food retailers, M&S is only a minor player on the market. Since the first of September 2020, M&S grocery products can be ordered via the online grocery store Ocado.

Population in Africa 2025, by selected country

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa. As of 2025, the country counted over 237.5 million individuals, whereas Ethiopia, which ranked second, has around 135.5 million inhabitants. Egypt registered the largest population in North Africa, reaching nearly 118.4 million people. In terms of inhabitants per square kilometer, Nigeria only ranked seventh, while Mauritius had the highest population density on the whole African continent in 2023.

Africa is the second most populous continent in the world, after Asia. Nevertheless, Africa records the highest growth rate worldwide, with figures rising by over two percent every year. In some countries, such as Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Chad, the population increase peaks at over three percent. With so many births, Africa is also the youngest continent in the world. However, this coincides with a low life expectancy. 

The last decades have seen high urbanization rates in Asia, mainly in China and India. However, African cities are currently growing at larger rates. Indeed, most of the fastest-growing cities in the world are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Gwagwalada, in Nigeria, and Kabinda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, ranked first worldwide. By 2035, instead, Africa's fastest-growing cities are forecast to be Bujumbura, in Burundi, and Zinder, Nigeria.

Natural gas production in Australia 2015-2024

In 2024, natural gas production in Australia amounted to approximately 150 billion cubic meters. This marked a substantial increase from 74.3 billion cubic meters recorded in 2015, at the beginning of the measured period.

As a country with abundant natural resources, Australia is one of the ten largest producers of natural gas in the world. Within the country, most natural gas is produced in Western Australia, and the production has been overall rising in the last ten years. Consumption of natural gas in the country has remained steady, and the country makes a significant contribution to the global gas supply through exports. While Australian natural gas has been popular in the global market, the country’s bestseller is liquified natural gas (LNG).

Australia currently depends heavily on oil, coal, and natural gas for its primary energy consumption. Furthermore, the production and export of LNG have been increasing over the past years. The country’s largest independent oil and gas company, Woodside, is even looking to expand its gas field operations off the coast of Western Australia. However, this is in direct contradiction with the climate targets of the country, which have been enshrined by law. Almost half of Australians believe that the government’s actions on climate change are not sufficient. The future will show how the country is going to balance the wish for a growing oil and gas economy while trying to meet its environmental commitments at the same time.