Cross-strait tensions, the One-China policy and regional security around Taiwan and China.
Behind The Headlines
Oil facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have again been struck by ballistic missiles and drones, while evidence has emerged that the US could be plotting raids into north-eastern Iranian territory. In…
CEO Interviews
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Paul is an experienced CEO/General Manager/Investment Manager who has led and developed teams in a technology domain across the communications, medical and mining industries. With qualifications in Electrical Engineering…
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The renewable revolution is running out of space. Utility-scale solar and wind farms take up enormous tracts of land and are facing increasing legal pushback from many of the communities where their development is…
Zimbabwe
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My friend and former colleague Knox Chitiyo, who has died aged 65 of bowel cancer, was a Zimbabwean academic and later an important voice in Britain on his homeland and its future. He was regularly consulted by…
Egypt
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Calls for release of six Matsadaash staff after one is charged, while whereabouts of other five remain unknown An Egyptian journalist has been charged with joining a terrorist group, days after an entire newsroom was…
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Despite pressure from some governments and consumers for a global energy transition, private equity firms continue to invest heavily in some of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. Following the Covid-19…
Economics
SuperImperialism, Dollar System, Financialization and China’s Economic Transition South South Dialogue on Sustainability Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a…
Middle East & Africa
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A Charge Sheet Aimed at the Sea On 29 September, Ethiopia’s army chief, Field Marshal Birhanu Jula, told the country that its soldiers were fighting forces “organised and allied to serve the interests of external…
Economics
The August level of $132.6 billion is the second-highest trade deficit on record, topped only by last year’s March deficit. Dean Baker is a Senior Economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR)…
CEO Interviews
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Joel Jorgensen founded FlowAccel, helping silicon systems engineering leaders deliver on roadmap commitments and scale development organizations. During 25 years at Intel, he spent 15 years in analog design and…
Europe
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In the East, Macron declares a war of words on Putin, without firing a shot. In the West, his own high school students declare a war of schoolbags, with blockades and calendars. Two fronts, a single overwhelmed general…
Lever Weekly
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Opinion
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Poland's leadership has fulfilled a long-standing ambition. Poles will now have a new state institution tasked with identifying and combating what the authorities regard as disinformation on the internet and in the…
Economics
Recent AI security failures may point to something more troubling than runaway intelligence: models becoming highly capable while learning to game narrow goals in brittle and dangerous ways Daron Acemoglu is a 2024 Nobel…
East Asia
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Stalling Clubs, Growing Caucus In mid-September Xi Jinping made his first visit to India in seven years for the BRICS summit in New Delhi. The bloc’s declaration opposed “unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures”…
Europe
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Wages Frozen, Gas Doubled, Warships Wanted On 1 October Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu unveiled €54 billion of savings in France’s 2027 budget. They include a public-sector pay freeze and limits on pension increases…
Politics/Diplomacy
In a revealing exchange from a Turkish television interview, former Turkish Foreign Minister and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu delivered an explicit account of how Ankara intervened in 2012 to block the United Kingdom…
UK
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Islam Times - The timing of London’s accusations against Iran over the Fairford case, amid Britain’s economic crisis, security theatrics by Washington and Tel Aviv, and the Burnham government’s double standards, has once…
Middle East & Africa
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Twenty Kilometres From Africa On 11 September the Houthis took Mocha and Perim Island and completed their capture of Yemen’s Red Sea coast. Iran’s Yemeni ally now holds positions about 20km from Africa, across a strait…
#Culture
Darius helps select new guards for the Five Star caravan, and a fun trip to the suq comes to a sudden, chaotic end. Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11…
Larry C. Johnson
Benjamin Netanyahu has a talent for round numbers, and for knowing which audience gets which one. On the night of October 17, 2024, after Israeli soldiers stumbled on Yahya Sinwar in Rafah and killed him, the prime…
Long-read
The current war with Iran and its chaotic unfolding open a door of great danger for the U.S. and the planet. At best, we are condemned to negotiations dominated by personal and political imperatives that seem to fit with…
Middle East & Africa
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The war involving Iran, Israel and the United States has reshaped the strategic balance across the Middle East, leaving the Strait of Hormuz at the centre of a wider contest over regional security, economic leverage and…
When Nguyễn Thành Nam released In Conversation with Thanh: A New Account of the Light in April, Vietnam’s state media fell in line. Twenty official outlets, including major Communist Party mouthpieces, coordinated their…
External
Oil companies have spent years using AI to drill faster, predict equipment failures and squeeze more production from existing fields. The UAE’s state-run oil giant, ADNOC, is now finding out what the same technology can…
Analysis
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After my essay and live chat on how the former GOP operatives behind The Bulwark are trying to steer Democrats’ agenda, the news outlet has been scrambling to try to fortify its reputation as experts in winning…
Economics
On Sunday, 4 October, Brasil is holding a general election Michael Roberts is an Economist in the City of London and a prolific blogger . Cross-posted from Michael Roberts’ blog The most important election in South…
External
The flow of crude from the Persian Gulf has recovered to near-prewar levels, but the latest data shows that much of the oil is reaching markets through routes and shipping arrangements that did not exist before the war…
Palestine
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Islam Times - Nearly 12 months into the so-called ceasefire, Gaza’s humanitarian crisis remains “overwhelming,” according to OCHA, amid continued “Israeli” aggression. WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian…
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There is an increasing body of evidence connecting climate change and severe weather events. In 2004, a group of researchers published one of the first studies linking human-caused climate change to a specific extreme…
External
Years ago, I saw a viral video where a blacksmith debunked the whole “fire doesn’t melt steel” line from 9/11 conspiracy theories. That blacksmith was an old friend of mine named Trenton Tye. I got a chance to chat with…
Hebron / PNN — Monjed Jadou Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa, accompanied by a number of ministers and officials, visited Al-Rabieh Feed Company and its manufacturing plant in Beit Awwa, Hebron province, to…
External
Several countries across Latin America have been rapidly expanding their wind energy capacity to diversify the energy mix and strengthen energy security, with far more expansion planned for the next decade. Brazil and…
This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 18 September 2026. Mamadou Diawo Labboyah Barry, publishing director of the Guinean press group Le Lynx and correspondent for the French media outlet Jeune Afrique…
This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 4 September 2026. In this piece, our Senior Manager for Freedom of Expression and Digital Rights, Vivian Afoah, unpacks Mali’s shrinking civic space, examining the…
World News
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Russia has stated that it will continue to conduct targeted strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities as retaliation for what it calls acts of terrorism by Ukrainian Armed Forces against Russian civilians. The Russian…
Diplomacy
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One Week, Three Prices On 17 September the US State Department notified Congress of a $24.3 billion sale of 48 F-35s to Saudi Arabia. It did so despite a Defense Intelligence Agency warning that Saudi use of Huawei and…
You Love To See It
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Good things are happening! Watchdogs clean up dirty justice, Dolly’s greatest hits keep rolling, states kick the vape habit, and a prediction market gamble goes belly up. You Love To See It is a benefit of a Lever paid…
Iran
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The speech of the Iranian President at the UN General Assembly in New York captivated the audience with its unwillingness to yield in the face of the aggressive force of the US, and showed Washington’s utter helplessness…
Recipes
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Chia seeds and goji berries have something in common beyond their reputation as fashionable “superfoods”: both have much older food traditions than their recent popularity in Western supermarkets suggests. One comes from…
World
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Just days before Brazil’s presidential election, the issue of foreign interference has unexpectedly acquired a Russian dimension. Reuters reported on closed-door September consultations between Brazil’s intelligence…
Economy
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5.34% and a Finance Minister’s Problem On Thursday the yield on the 10-year US Treasury touched 5.34%, its highest since 2002. The same day, Britain’s 30-year gilt yield crossed 6% for the first time since 1998, and…
World News
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German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that Germany might revert to the divisions seen before World War Two, highlighting the dangers of disinformation spread by antidemocratic extremists. His speech coincided…
Energy News
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The Trump administration’s discussions with Russia to end the war in Ukraine have included a potential multibillion-dollar oil deal. This deal would benefit Middle Eastern business executives linked to US negotiators…
Science & Technology
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Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) are unprecedented, surpassing previous technological booms like railways and the internet. A report from PwC predicts that global spending on data centers could exceed $30…
GAZA / PNN / With schools and educational centres absent from several areas where Palestinians have been displaced, school principal Rana Muslim has launched a personal education initiative in the Al-Zawaida area to…
Libya
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Western Libya’s GNU say working with Saddam Haftar ‘impossible’ as US-backed merger plan breaks down Allegations that the son of the Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar oversaw a “terror cell” that launched drone attacks on…
Diplomacy
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The 81st UNGA, which is the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the United Nations, was held late September 2026 in New York. It attracted global leaders and several delegations, who delivered…