Cross-strait tensions, the One-China policy and regional security around Taiwan and China.
Opinion
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No one knows how the US Supreme Court will rule in Suncor v. Boulder, the case that will kick off the court’s fall term next week and will likely decide whether the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, will be able to…
Opinion
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In February 2026, weeks after Cambodia’s National Assembly approved a draft law to ratify the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a convention Phnom Penh signed in 1983 but never ratified, Japan unveiled…
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From strategic partnership between to the effects of natural disasters and climate phenomena, the past week brought developments with implications across Asia. Here are some of the stories we published in recent days…
Military
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Taiwan’s new American-made F-16V Block 70 jets deliver much-needed breathing room against daily Chinese gray-zone coercion, yet surging Chinese stealth numbers and cratered runway risks mean their wartime utility would…
Iran
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Islam Times - Abbas al-Zaydi, a strategic affairs expert, stressed that the U.S. and Israeli aggression against the Islamic Republic of Iran initially pursued major objectives, including an attempt to overthrow the…
US
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Islam Times - Hadi Qobeisi, director of the UVID Center for Research and Studies, believes that the objectives of the United States and Israel in the war against the Islamic Republic of Iran have undergone a gradual…
Palestine
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Islam Times - Ommat al-Malek al-Khashab, a journalist, prominent political analyst, and member of the Supreme Council of Yemen News, examined in an analytical article the visual and political confrontation that unfolded…
Iran
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Islam Times - Abdulilah Hajar, Deputy Chairman of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, emphasized that the US-Israeli war against the Islamic Republic of Iran was not a transient military event, but rather part of a…
Larry C. Johnson
Donald Trump would like you to know that the Strait of Hormuz is in tremendous shape. Possibly the best shape in its history. On September 27, he told reporters that “last night, we took a record amount of oil out of the…
Europe
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As the world’s leaders gather for the 81st UN General Assembly, the ink is just starting to dry on the “amended and supplemented” agreement that, it is hoped, will lay to rest the tensions between the Trump…
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President Donald Trump said Friday that South Korea’s investment agreement with the United States now includes $8.4 billion for an enhanced oil recovery project. Seoul says it agreed to no such thing. “The Republic of…
History books
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Pioneering historian who transformed the study of Africa by seeking out the testimonies of Africans When John Iliffe, who has died aged 87, wrote his book The African Poor: A History (1987), the continent was readily…
World
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Recent reports suggest that Western partners are pressing Armenia to impose a visa regime on Russia as a condition for closer ties with the European Union. This alleged demand, cited by the Armenian publication Hraparak…
World
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Argentina's recent launch of its first military nano-satellite, ETNS, represents a dual achievement and a symptom of shifting priorities. While the satellite was a product of domestic engineering prowess, developed by…
Economics
You have been trained to believe that inflation must be controlled with rises in interest rates. Now take two seconds to stop and ask why and you’ll start seeing just how nuts a lot of economics is. Robin McAlpine is…
Geopolitics
The trial of five Palestinian rights activists, now approaching its final stage, has exposed for all to see not only Germany’s increasingly neofascist playbook for silencing dissent but complicity in Israel’s genocide…
Geopolitics
Once again, the British state is exploiting anti-democratic terrorism measures to secure convictions of Palestine Action defendants who targeted an Israeli weapons plant. UK media is currently forbidden from reporting on…
External
Tajikistan announced that it is now receiving oil and petroleum products from Iran, opening a potential new energy source for a country whose fuel supplies have long been dominated by Russia. The deliveries began in late…
Foreign Affairs
Scrambling to halt the ongoing offensive of Yemen’s Armed Forces, Israel and Saudi Arabia have strengthened ties through a joint covert campaign aimed at salvaging what remains of their supremacy in the Red Sea region…
World
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The European Commission has initiated infringement proceedings against Spain for failing to submit its updated energy crisis action plan on time. Spain is not alone in this predicament; France has also faced similar…
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The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States fell this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US falling to 598, up 49 from…
LeverMind Quiz
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How is Trump re-running campaign ads? Where are companies sending their hazardous waste? And who’s regulating our financial system? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in LeverMind , our weekly news…
Greene Tweed
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Magen Buterbaugh was appointed President and CEO of Greene Tweed in January 2023. A seasoned leader, with broad industry expertise, Magen has led multiple chemicals & materials-based businesses – spanning from startups…
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Physical oil markets tighten sharply as Dated Brent surges above $120 despite ICE Brent slipping toward $101. Friday, October 02, 2026 The European diesel stock release, droned tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, and China…
Energy Geopolitics
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Crude Came Back. Diesel Didn’t. This week, seven months after the Iran war shut the Strait of Hormuz, crude oil finally returned to normal. Around 13.5 million barrels a day are again leaving the Gulf through the strait…
Americas
This Sunday , Brazilian voters head to the polls to decide whether left-wing incumbent President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will win a historic fourth term. Lula’s challenger is Flávio Bolsonaro, who has styled himself as…
Activism
When it burst into widespread use as a result of the 1976 movie “All the President’s Men,” the phrase “Follow the money” referred to political influence or corruption and how to track it. Fifty years later, the meaning…
Activism
For years, a subculture of amateur investigators has been publicly performing a by-now familiar script. Posing as children online, they arrange meetings with unsuspecting adult men, then show up with cameras and…
Democracy & Governance
For much of the year, the war with Iran was treated in Washington as a foreign-policy problem: a question of military objectives, nuclear policy, deterrence, and negotiations. As the November 3 midterm elections…
External
The G7 and its partners have agreed to release as much as 100 million barrels of emergency diesel and crude stocks over the next four months, putting government inventories into a fuel market that has been running short…
Activism
With a month to go before the midterm elections, conservatives are escalating their attacks on transgender Americans in the belief that transphobia is an effective strategy for galvanizing voters. Elon Musk ’s super PAC…
3D IC
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The TSMC OIP Ecosystem Forum highlighted many accomplishments across TSMC’s vast ecosystem. Specific achievements with TSMC as well as collaborative work across several companies were all on display. And there was an…
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A total of 21 LNG cargoes are estimated to have exited the Strait of Hormuz in September, the highest monthly number since the Iran war began, yet well below pre-war levels, shipping data compiled by Reuters showed on…
Middle East & Africa
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Fighting is happening in northern Ethiopia between federal troops and a rebel alliance led by Tigrayan forces. This conflict resembles the earlier civil war from 2020 to 2022, which resulted in massive casualties…
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November WTI crude oil futures spent the week caught between two opposing trades. Gulf crude flows improved as Saudi Arabia restored export routes and producers found ways around the Strait of Hormuz disruption. That was…
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Politics, Geopolitics & Conflict U.S. troops have withdrawn from Iraq, but this isn’t Biden’s Iraq. The withdrawal was agreed in 2024 when Biden determined that Iraqi forces could handle the remaining ISIS threat and…
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Russia came out of its parliamentary election with Putin stronger on paper and the country considerably harder to read. United Russia now controls 349 of the State Duma’s 450 seats, its largest majority ever, and some 50…
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The U.S. last month sent two additional Patriot missile batteries to protect energy infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and Qatar from Iranian strikes in case the war escalates again, U.S. officials and a Persian Gulf…
Europe
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British police have arrested a dual UK-Iranian national in connection with an alleged terrorist plot involving RAF Fairford, an airbase used by the US to target Iran. This incident began when police received a tip from a…
Society
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Reports of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region have not yet been officially confirmed, but the situation has prompted swift action from regional authorities and public health officials. Unconfirmed Reports Spark…
World News
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Ethiopian government forces are advancing towards Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray region, as fears rise that the ongoing conflict could escalate into a wider war following the breakdown of diplomatic ties with…
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Japanese energy firm JERA is creating an oil storage company which will exclusively manage the operation of the national petroleum stockpiling bases that JERA currently operates, as the Middle East crisis has upended the…
Energy News
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European Union countries discussed a French proposal to release diesel stocks due to US pressure related to soaring fuel prices and the Iran war. The proposal suggests that Europe should release 50 million barrels of…
AI
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For decades, chipmakers improved computing performance largely by putting more capable circuitry on a piece of silicon. That remains important, but AI is exposing its limits. Large models demand enormous amounts of data…
Trump administration
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Refugees from third countries are being sent to Equatorial Guinea, where they are often sent back to the very countries they fled For nearly a year, the Hotel Bamy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, has been Adam’s prison. He…
Human Rights
For a dissident living abroad, repression does not always arrive as a threat from an intelligence service. It may appear at an airport check-in desk, a border crossing, a bank compliance review, or an immigration…
External
The Trump Administration’s pet project Alaska LNG may not be commercially investable as costs per production could be more than double the costs at most U.S. Gulf Coast LNG export projects, a Reuters analysis has found…
Politics
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With Democrats leading competitive races and poised to reclaim the House, the American political map is shifting under Trump’s weakening hold, the impending exits of McConnell and Pelosi, and a familiar warning: never…