Taiwan

Good things are happening! Meta gets a very expensive timeout, regulators kill a killer weedkiller, big money gets the cold shoulder, and Trump’s trans-care crackdown gets blocked. You Love To See It is a benefit of a Lever paid subscription. If...

On 11 February, NATO launched Arctic Sentry — Swedish Gripen jets patrolling Greenlandic airspace, German Eurofighters overhead, nine flags behind a single new command. Officially, it answers Russian submarines in the GIUK gap. Unofficially, it arrived three weeks after Donald...

Adam P. Liff’s book is a concise yet conceptually rich contribution to the study of the Taiwan Strait. It argues that the US allies are more autonomous, which is empirically convincing but not fully causal. While the book challenges US-centrism,...

Rivalry between the United States and China plays a pivotal role in the geopolitical dynamics of Southeast Asia. There are many challenging decisions to be made, starting with the South China Sea and continuing on through the global supply chain....

Africa does not simply have a shortage of capital. Its deeper problem is that the capital mobilized by its financial systems does not consistently reach firms in the form, at the maturity, and on the terms they need to invest,...

On August 26, the Himalayas seemed to move. An enormous mass of ice and rock broke loose near the Nepal-Tibet border, plunging into the Lhende Khola River and unleashing a wall of water, mud, boulders and debris down the mountain...

This article first appeared in Pacific Forum and is republished with permission. Read the original here. There are multiple interpretations of where the India-China relationship stands today. Is there a thaw? Are the two sides gradually moving toward a reset?...

Central Claim The diplomatic traffic through Tehran this week, Qatar, Pakistan and Oman all visiting in seven days, has generated the appearance of momentum toward reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The substance tells a different story. Iran is not negotiating...

In the wake of setbacks over Iran, stalled Middle East diplomacy, and hollow peacemaking claims, Donald Trump is scrambling for any foreign policy win he can claim—real or manufactured. His latest gambit? A disastrous last-ditch push to drag Russia into...

The war propaganda machine in the US is a ceaseless, multifaceted contraption that includes legacy media, the educational system and the entertainment industry. A nation does not eviscerate tens of millions of “enemy” civilians without first laying a meticulous foundation...

As rescue and recovery efforts continue in the areas that were flooded along the border between Nepal and China on Wednesday, the danger of a second flood is building as a barrier lake has been formed by a landslide dam...

Islam Times - Donald Trump has long portrayed himself as a master of the “deal,” but the war with Iran has put that claim to a serious test. A professional negotiator must manage the cost of reaching an agreement, rather...

There is, once again, something both depressing and hilarious about Washington’s search for a Trump foreign-policy doctrine. Well over a year into Trump’s second term, the exercise has resumed with the same misplaced confidence that animated it in 2017: op-ed...

“Theory is a net. Only those who cast, can catch.”- Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959) In assessing Israel’s nuclear deterrence and escalation doctrine, one element remains consistently overlooked. This element concerns US-Russian differences regarding “nuclear firebreak theory.”...

In the race to secure the Democratic ticket for Massachusetts’ upcoming Senate race, Rep. Seth Moulton has put out a not-so-subtle call for ads targeting “voters under 40” highlighting that he’s “one of Massachusetts’ rising progressive stars” and a “next...

Over the last two years, the EU and UK have emerged as leading actors in imposing sanctions on Russia. But people like Maria Demertzis, Professor at the European University Institute in Italy, have raised questions around the effectiveness of the...

Here’s a realistic scenario how the next serious crisis around digital sovereignty will play out. It will not be a conventional cyberattack. An AI agent, pursuing an assigned objective, will identify another AI system as an obstacle and attempt to...

The massive data center capacity scale-up underway has focused attention on the scale of water required for these facilities to operate. Rystad Energy estimates that without water-saving measures in place, global water consumption by data centers could rise to 644...

Venezuela helped create OPEC. More than six decades later, it is considering walking away, and Washington appears perfectly happy to hold open the door. Caracas is weighing whether to leave the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Bloomberg reported Friday,...

Kazakhstan is trying to keep the Kremlin at arm’s length amid Russian efforts to lean on Central Asian states for help in bolstering Moscow’s staggering war economy. Ukraine’s ongoing drone campaign has inflicted severe damage on Russia’s energy infrastructure and...

Chinese media and intelligence are closely following the exodus of the American Central Intelligence Agency CIA personnel, particularly the months-long wait for new retirees to receive their financial entitlements. The agency is facing what it describes as an unprecedented number...

More Gulf oil is moving again. Getting it out now costs a fortune. Earnings on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-China supertanker route surged to a record $647,000 per day on Thursday, according to Baltic Exchange data cited by Bloomberg. That is...

The total number of active drilling rigs for oil and gas in the United States stayed the same this week, according to new data that Baker Hughes published on Friday, with the total rig count in the US staying at...

Vladimir Putin’s upcoming visit to the Kyrgyz capital could become a turning point for the largest Eurasian association, which is preparing for a radical transformation of its role on the continent. SCO Is Not NATO — But It Could Become Something...

In the second quarter of 2026, the EU recorded a trade deficit of €21.8 billion, as goods imported from non-EU countries (€701.8 billion) exceeded exports (€680.0 billion). This is the first trade deficit registered since the second quarter of 2023,...

Why is meat so expensive? Who’s pouring herself a cup of ambition? And who is Hasan Piker anyway? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in LeverMind , our weekly news quiz testing your knowledge of the...

Natural gas prices in Asia and Europe jumped on Friday as the market digested reports that Qatar has extended the force majeure on its LNG deliveries into November amid still blocked transits through the Strait of Hormuz. In Asia, the...

Chinese Huawei Technologies Company has submitted a formal bid to the Egyptian government to establish advanced artificial intelligence (AI) data centers for various government sectors, including the military, security, and surveillance sectors, as well as the creation of a national...

Oil holds near $90 despite sweeping Iran sanctions as uncertainty over Hormuz transits keeps markets on edge. Friday, August 28, 2026 The US announcement of ‘toughest sanctions in history’ against Iran did relatively little to push oil prices away from...

Statutory and Regulatory Compliance. Tenderers must ensure compliance with: SANS 10400 (National Building Regulations) SABS standards applicable to construction materials and safety CIDB grading requirements for contractors Master Builder Association registration for builders Professional registrations: Engineers (ECSA), Project Managers (SACPCMP), Quantity Surveyors (SACQSP), Architects (SACAP) CIDB Grading...