The OPEC’s worst ever defection

Akshara· Host0:00

[upbeat music] In today's episode, we'll break down two important stories. First, we'll talk about the UAE leaving OPEC, and then we'll talk about no money, more problems for the music business. Welcome back to The Daily Brief by Zerodha, where we cut through the noise to help you understand what's actually happening in the most important stories from business and markets. I'm your host Akshara, and today is Thursday, 30th April. Coming to the first story. So on April 28th, leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council met in Jeddah. They were there for an emergency session on how they would handle the Iran war, but there was one empty chair. A prominent Gulf country was missing from the proceedings. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, was not in the room. In fact, UAE officials were decrying the GCC as being weak. Now, this was odd. The UAE had been cooperative until just a few weeks ago, and as recently as April 5th, the UAE was still sitting in OPEC meetings, adjusting its production for the sake of market stability. Two days later, the OPEC publicly listed the UAE among countries that submitted updated compensation plans for past overproduction. But that cooperation began crumbling over the month. It culminated on the evening of the 28th when the UAE released its official statement. Starting from May 1st, it was leaving OPEC. So OPEC was founded in Baghdad in 1960 by five governments, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,