Taiwan

Sexual and reproductive services face an uncertain future as the country’s second-largest donor halts support worth hundreds of millions of pounds The Swedish flag is still flying above the pale blue building overlooking the Atlantic in Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, but the...

The latest escalation comes as the six month conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran enters a more uncertain phase. Washington has increasingly shifted from direct military action toward economic pressure and sanctions, while Iran has sought to preserve...

Ceuta is a Spanish enclave on Morocco’s northern coast and one of the European Union’s two land borders with Africa. Its location has made it a longstanding focal point for irregular migration and a sensitive issue in Spain Morocco relations....

Pedro Sánchez says two countries are cooperating after mass incursion by 70,000 people into north African enclave Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has insisted there was no evidence to suggest the Moroccan government was behind last month’s massive border crossing into...

Lithium miners are reporting strong profits for the first half of the year thanks to stronger demand for battery storage, Bloomberg reported today, noting some of them are planning production ramp-ups and capacity expansion. Two Chinese lithium majors - Tianqi...

Markets End August With Rising Risk Global financial markets entered the final trading day of August cautiously as renewed fighting between the United States and Iran pushed oil prices higher and increased concerns about inflation. Brent crude rose above $90...

On August 20, China’s National Immigration Administration expanded the 240-hour visa-free transit policy to two more countries — Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam — bringing the number of eligible nationalities to 57. A parallel 30-day visa-free scheme for Hainan now covers 61...

This is a collaboration with The American Prospect , a magazine about ideas, politics, and power . Max Rose, the pugnacious former Democratic congressman from Staten Island, has been a frequent guest on cable news this election cycle, touting the success...

The US-Israeli war against Iran passed its six-month mark this week, and on August 24, the bill for two decades of hosting American power came due. The US Treasury opened a global sanctions campaign against everyone still trading with Tehran....

Asian crude oil importers, including China, Japan, and South Korea, have turned to buying oil from as far as Argentina to offset supply losses from the Middle East, anonymous traders with knowledge of the purchases told Bloomberg on Monday. Refiners...

Quantum’s hype obscures a reality with real geopolitical stakes: the technology works and is advancing every day. Cameron Chehreh (IonQ), JD Dulny (Booz Allen), and Ben Gianni (GDIT) join Jonathan to discuss the race to Q-Day. They cover the shift...

Meloni Set to Break Italy’s Stability Record Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is poised to lead the country’s longest lasting government since World War Two, surpassing the previous record of 1,412 consecutive days held by Silvio Berlusconi. Meloni came to...

Indonesia’s ambition to evolve into a global price-setter for commodities was formally unveiled by President Prabowo Subianto on August 4, 2026, during his State of the Nation Address before the joint session of the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR), the House...

Walk into the Pentagon, climb the escalator, and an Uncle Sam-style poster points at you: “I want YOU to use AI.” It worked. GenAI.mil hit 1.5 million users in six months, and I have heard enough OpenAI-in-disguise pitches to last...

Nepal Seeks Stronger Cooperation With China Nepal is renewing calls for greater cooperation with China on disaster monitoring and early warning systems after a devastating Himalayan flash flood killed hundreds and left thousands missing along the Nepal China border. The...

The Special Representatives (SRs) Mechanism on the India-China Boundary Question completed 25 rounds of talks when China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in Beijing on August 25, 2026. Initiated in 2003, it operates above...

Refiners are set to reap stronger profits on the global diesel shortage, Goldman Sachs has said, revising its earlier profit forecast to double the total profits that refining companies would make from the squeeze. “Rising strikes on refineries in the...

Two major races were won and lost in Beijing on August 26. On one track, a humanoid robot ran 100 meters in 8.64 seconds, nearly a full second under Usain Bolt’s world record. On another, the same robot slammed into...

More than two dozen teenagers stuck in the Spanish territory of Ceuta shared their reasons for joining the treacherous mass crossing in July For Fatin, one of the teenage girls now living in limbo in a makeshift camp in the Spanish...

On 1 July, China’s Ministry of Commerce quietly turned rare earth export control from paperwork into something closer to a criminal exposure. MOFCOM Announcement No. 26 created a public reporting system for anyone who exports a controlled mineral without a...

Oil prices climbed in early Asian trade on Monday after the U.S. struck Iran for the first time in over a month, with Iran then retaliating against U.S. bases in Jordan. At the time of writing, WTI front-month futures were...

Ten months into al-Qaeda’s blockade of Bamako, the fuel still arrives. Since JNIM’s spokesman announced the campaign on 3 September 2025, the group has destroyed more than 300 tankers on the highways from Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea that carry...

Pharmaceutical geopolitics is usually mapped through factories. China’s vast pharmaceutical supply chain, India’s strength in low-cost generics and the concentration of patented drug discovery in richer economies have shaped that discussion for years. But that map is becoming incomplete. Two...

Two noteworthy events this past week spell out how India is now assessing the global context in which it operates. In Beijing, India’s National Security Advisor, Ajit Doval, met China’s Vice President Han Zhang, and Foreign Minister Want Yi. In...

The news that Pakistan, Russia, and Belarus are working on a test freight railway connecting Minsk, Moscow, and Karachi may seem like just another infrastructure project needing funding and construction. However, the real importance of this initiative lies in what...

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told a briefing held on August 20, 2026, that “a substantial package of intergovernmental documents and commercial contracts is planned to be signed during the Russia-Africa summit, scheduled for late October.” Given the “mutual...

The base at Abu al-Duhur had been dead for thirteen years. Wrecked in the Syrian war, out of service since 2012, its runways cratered and its hangars stripped, it sat in Idlib province about 60 kilometers from the Turkish border,...

On Truth Social, Donald Trump announced what he called the most crushing economic operation the United States had ever mounted, promising Iran “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale.” He listed what he wants shut down: oil smuggling, swap...

Phillip Stanley-Marbell is the founder and CEO of Signaloid. Up until September 2025, he was a full Professor (Chair of Physical Computation) in the Electrical Engineering Division of the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he led...

U.S. shale innovation is not limited to drilling techniques and engineering breakthroughs. Producers are testing and already getting more oil out of existing wells in the shale formations with the use of advanced chemicals. The mixture of cocktails of various...

In the mental hospital, we were given hard-boiled eggs without salt. I came to see my time in isolation, and the forgoing of salt, as a form of slow torture. For over a month, I did not see anyone except...

One day after veteran commodities strategist Jeff Currie told investors to "get long and buckle up" for the next leg of the commodities rally, UBS strategist Sagar Khandelwal issued a similarly bullish call, urging clients to "position for a commodity upcycle." Khandelwal said...

Stephen Strausser was recently appointed CEO of VON ARDENNE North America, Inc. where he will lead the company’s regional strategy, operations, customer engagement and growth initiatives across the US, Canada, Mexico and South America. Stephen has a powerful blend of business acumen,...

American Arab journalist faces imprisonment in Jordan for allegedly sharing Twitter post critical of the Arab country An American Arab journalist, Ali Younes, has been charged for retweeting a post critical of the Jordanian government. He has been detained in...