Cross-strait tensions, the One-China policy and regional security around Taiwan and China.
Northeast Asia
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Hydrogen-powered passenger cars have been left far behind by electric vehicles and hybrids, but the hydrogen truck market is growing and new technology developed for auto racing is keeping hopes for hydrogen cars alive…
External
The G7 announcement of a release of 100 million barrels of crude oil and diesel has pressured down middle distillate refinery margins, which had hit record highs last month. The start of stock releases over the next four…
Active Citizens
Social Democratic Party leader Magdalena Andersson speaks at the Social Democrats’ election night party in Stockholm on 13 September 2026. Credit: Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency/AFP By Andrew Firmin LONDON, Oct 5 2026…
Military
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Indonesia is buying the weapons of a modern military at a pace rarely seen in its recent history. Rafale fighter jets are entering service, and the country has contracted for 48 KAAN fighters from Turkey. The navy has…
Cogs of War
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For eighty years, the Western alliance has anchored its strength in moral legitimacy, shared values, and the resulting credibility to shape international norms. NATO’s durability through the Cold War rested on more than…
External
Saudi Aramco has raised oil prices for European-bound cargoes in November but has cut prices for Asian buyers to the lowest in six years, Reuters reported today, noting analysts had expected price hikes. According to the…
Commentary
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On Oct. 1, 2026, Beijing celebrated the 77th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China and the beginning of the end for the U.S. Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute. The institute was…
External
OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to keep its oil production quota for next month unchanged from this one, in line with expectations, after it unwound its production cuts earlier this year in a bid to offset the deepening supply…
External
Sol Plaatje University (SPU) was established in 2013 and commenced its academic programmes in 2014 and plays an important role, both locally, in the Northern Cape, and nationally. The University Council governs the…
Southeast Asia
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In June 2026, Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Nezar Patria put Indonesia’s share of ASEAN’s digital economy at around 40 percent, a figure that varies with the source and definition used, yet…
External
Crude oil prices fell in early trading, though Brent remained above $100, after a report from Kpler revealed that flows out of the Strait of Hormuz are now above pre-war levels. The same firm made headlines last week…
China
Late last month, Japan’s defense ministry made an unsettling announcement. A U.S. ground-based missile system, known as the Typhon and capable of firing Tomahawk missiles, would not return to the United States after…
Enewsletter
Reports that more oil is getting through the Strait of Hormuz have been heralded as a win for the Trump administration, but experts say this kind of happy talk hides the fact that the war remains in a quagmire. As…
Kurds
On September 21, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq officially announced the completion of the long-delayed unification and reorganization of its Peshmerga paramilitary forces under the Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs (MoPA)…
US-China
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On September 19, Dou Xiankang, who heads the National Natural Science Foundation of China, described a grant that most young scientists anywhere would envy. Researchers under 35 will get 15 years of support. The money…
Archaeology
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Study of remains taken from royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab appears to confirm early Egyptologist’s theory Court officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died…
East Asia
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Chinese Studies (Sinology) has undergone a radical transformation in recent years, no longer limited to the study of history and classical language but evolving into a strategic field focused on understanding China as a…
Africa
A community health worker examines a pregnant woman inside her home while family members look on, highlighting the growing challenges mothers face as extreme heat and climate-related pressures strain access to healthcare…
Larry C. Johnson
Once again Karl W. Miller has put numbers to a problem that most of the commentariat still treats as a temporary price spike. His latest forward outlook, “The Five-Year Global Energy Crisis,” dated October 3, makes an…
External
US and Britain launch Operation Enduring Freedom, beginning the bombing of Afghanistan; Thai police and royalist paramilitaries massacre students at Thammasat University as the military seizes power in Bangkok; Truman…
By: Toh Han Shih Six Battery Road (brown building on left), hosts Radiant World headquarters in Singapore. Photo from Wikimedia Commons Singaporean courts have become a battlefield where commodities trading companies are…
Uncategorized
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Looking across the devastated landscape of the Gaza Strip, where surviving generations now carry the permanent physical and psychological scars of war, the ultimate indictment of our era is damning: The world watched the…
External
The share of gasoline cars in global vehicle sales fell below 50% for the first time ever as the Hormuz shock and the resulting record-high fuel prices accelerated the previously sluggish shift toward EVs outside China…
Technology
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Certain ideas define us. Some earned names of our own along the way. Others have run through nearly 240 pieces without ever being formally christened. Put together, they amount to a worldview. That worldview has been…
External
China this week announced it will suspend all fuel exports this month to keep its domestic market supplied. Also this week, President Donald Trump demanded that Germany and France release 120 million barrels of diesel…
Ukraine War
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The Russians are struggling on land and at sea, and are having real difficulty protecting themselves from Ukrainian long-range attack. That has left them with one real strategic “advantage” and that is what we will see…
Geopolitics
The US strategy to convince Iran to surrender John Mearsheimer is a political scientist and international relations scholar and professor at the University of Chicago Cross-posted from John Mearsheimer’s Substack The…
AI
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It has been a busy year for sure. In 2026, artificial intelligence agents conducting cybersecurity tests crossed into real computer systems. The incidents had different causes and impacts. Some agents exploited flaws to…
External
Space-based solar power just got another powerful vote of confidence. The United States Department of Defense just inked a contract with solar energy company Overview Energy to “design, build, and test a homing beacon…
Americas
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Two Deadlines, One Date Last Thursday, in Denton, Texas, Donald Trump said Iran is “ready to fold up” and that the war would be won “right after the election” — or “maybe before”. The same week he told TIME that new…
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…
External
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…
External
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…