Taiwan

BETHLEHEM / PNN/ The Central Elections Commission (CEC) announced today, Thursday, succeeding in increasing the percentage of registrants for the 2026 Legislative Elections to 87.2%, after adding over 32 thousand new registrants to the voters’ registry, bringing the total number of...

Poland has spent three decades without a coherent strategy towards Russia — oscillating between treating it as irrelevant and as an existential threat. Maximum Effort, Minimum Influence The consequences of that failure are now visible: despite allocating the highest share...

Military analysts are captivated by how the material nature of war is transforming in Ukraine. Unmanned systems have captured Russian infantry units, battered Russian naval and commercial ships, and even, with the help of on-board AI, conducted autonomous strikes deep...

Demand for tankers from Middle Eastern oil producers has pushed prices to an all-time high, the Financial Times reported today, saying both new and second-hand very large crude carriers reached prices of over $130 million in the second quarter of...

For years, the Chinese military’s own newspaper has been making a promise it may no longer be able to keep. Whenever the People’s Liberation Army Daily (Jiefangjun Bao), the official newspaper of China’s Central Military Commission, discusses artificial intelligence and...

U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that countries providing any form of economic support to Iran could face severe consequences, escalating Washington’s pressure campaign as the nearly six month old Iran war continues to disrupt regional trade and global energy...

Japan’s import bill reached an all-time high in July, driven by higher oil prices, to a total of $76.39 billion. This was up by 27.8% from July 2025, Reuters reported, citing import and export data. In volume terms, Japan’s crude...

The Iran war has pushed the global energy system into a deeper crisis, with the disruption increasingly shifting from crude oil supplies to the refined fuels that power transportation, industry and economies worldwide. While global oil markets have adapted relatively...

Tensions between Israel and Turkey over Syria are escalating after Israel struck the Abu al-Duhur airbase earlier this week, warning that it would not accept a Turkish military presence at the site. Israel said Syria was close to allowing Turkish...

In my previous piece — The Walls Have Doors Now — I argued that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s promised “ measures like have never been seen in the history of the economic isolation of a country ” would push against...

South Korea estimates that North Korea possesses between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads, putting Seoul’s assessment well above the figure recently cited by U.S. President Donald Trump. South Korean Defence Minister Ahn Gyu-back told lawmakers that North Korea was generally...

When ASEAN formally accorded Türkiye Dialogue Partner status on 21 July, Ankara gained more than diplomatic access. It gained a test of whether Turkish firms can operate across a region where currencies, contracts, carbon rules and political risks vary sharply...

Chinese refiners are buying Iraqi crude, with recent purchases of 8 million barrels of Basrah Heavy and Basrah Medium for prompt delivery, Bloomberg has reported, citing unnamed traders. Oil has continued flowing via the Strait of Hormuz—Iraq’s main export channel—despite...

The cyber-fraud industry has flourished in Thailand, Cambodia and Myanmar, with thousands of people trafficked into the industry. But even those who have managed to find a way out often cannot return home Artillery fire thundered. Windows shattered. Roofs caved in....

North Korean paramount leader Kim Jong-un has demonstrated he can make bold policy decisions. In 2013 he sought to frighten his senior officials into obedience by ordering the execution of his uncle and senior mentor Jang Song-thaek. In 2017 he...

Mahjong is having a global moment. From designer tile sets and “mahjong parties” to growing numbers of clubs and classes, the centuries-old Chinese tile game is becoming trendy once again. But its resurgence raises questions about cultural exchange, commercialization, and...

The Israeli government is building an execution facility to hang Palestinian prisoners, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir announced Tuesday in a statement from his office. In video released from the site—a prison in central Israel that his office did not...

By Tita C. Valderama Image from Institute for Maritime and Ocean Affairs The Philippines is taking another legal and diplomatic step to assert its maritime rights in the West Philippine Sea, asking a United Nations commission to consider the 2016 South China...

Three villages. That is the full extent of Lebanese Armed Forces control under the “pilot zone” framework that Washington brokered in June — Zawtar Al Gharbiyeh, Srifa, and Froun, all of them in the strip of southern Lebanon that Israeli...

There is a familiar rhythm to these moments, and Washington’s foreign policy establishment keeps forgetting the tune: A president tires of an alliance relationship that isn’t paying the dividends he expected, reaches for the most disruptive lever available and the...

The collapse was caused by a landslide, while local officials say the death toll is likely to rise as recovery efforts continue More than 100 people have died after an artisanal goldmine at a small village in western Central African Republic...

Consider this hypothetical: Two apartment buildings share a single parking lot. Management from both Building A and Building B are engaged in negotiations over how the parking lot will be organized, painted, maintained, and paid for. Across the street is...

Six months after Trumpy & Bibi launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28th, the so-called kinetic campaign has settled into a costly stalemate, at best. And a de facto military defeat as a practical matter. In fact, what...

The world is installing wind turbines and solar panels faster than ever, but coal still generates more electricity than any other source, and by a huge margin. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects coal-fired power plants to generate 10,974 terawatt-hours...

In this issue: - Wang Yi in South Korea - Unitree IPO - Ministry of Justice tells EU to pound sand in JD.com case - Youth unemployment rate hits 17.9% in July - Beijing finally approves purchases of Nvidia H200 chips - ”Once Upon a Time...

For most of the past six months, traders active on the commodity futures markets have been mostly optimistic. They have taken every statement by President Donald Trump about peace talks or victory over Iran at face value, betting on a...

Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi’s visit to India on Thursday, August 20, 2026, could well mark the beginning of a structural transition in Asian security architecture, shifting major bilateral relationships into cross-border defense-industrial frameworks. Koizumi’s meetings with Indian Defense Minister...

The threat reveals less about Oman and far more about how comprehensively the Iran war has gone off script for an administration that promised a quick, decisive victory. President Donald Trump did not set out to make an enemy of...

Russia has been subject to many months of a ramped-up long-range drone campaign out of Ukraine, chiefly targeting oil refineries as well as industrial sites - and most recently expanding to online retail companies and attacks on private sector businesses....

Oilfield services giant SLB is preparing to reactivate as many as 15 drilling rigs in Venezuela, potentially removing one of the biggest obstacles to increasing the country’s crude production. SLB and energy-focused private equity firm Formentera Partners are working on...

Officials say all seven people onboard killed, including Telemundo executive and Ecuador intelligence chief Seven people, including five Americans, were killed when a safari helicopter crashed on Wednesday morning in a remote part of northern Kenya, according to local police and...

Afshon Ostovar, one of the leading experts on Iran and the host of the members-only podcast The Iran Reckoning, is joined by War on the Rocks membership editor Kerry Anderson for a state-of-play conversation on the conflict between the United...

Trafigura Group and several other traders delivered more than 20,000 tons of copper into LME warehouses on Tuesday, the biggest one-day build in on-warrant stock since April, and the squeeze that had gripped the London market for the past week...

Hebron / PNN / In the Old City of Hebron, some traditional Palestinian crafts continue to resist decline, maintaining a fragile presence despite rapid change and a shrinking workforce. Among them is handmade glassmaking , a centuries-old craft passed down through...

Kyrgyzstan has provided some clarity on the source of the recent blackout that impacted four states in Central Asia, while vigorously denying blame for the cascading outage. Power outages were first reported in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek during the...

The Trump administration’s ‘America first’ approach has contributed to the scale of the crisis now unfolding in one of the world’s poorest countries For months health experts have warned that the scale of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of...

American star Kanye West's upcoming concerts in Russia have sparked political controversy, but they have done little to change the attitude of a grateful audience toward the artist. Does Kanye West Love Hitler? American rapper Ye (Kanye West) is officially coming to...

ALBAWABA- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would not tolerate a Turkish military presence in Syria that it considers a threat to its security, following Israeli airstrikes on a Syrian military airbase and a sharp deterioration in...