Pyongyang Deepens Military Support as Russia Strengthens Strategic Alliance North Korea is significantly expanding its military involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine, with new reports indicating that Pyongyang has deployed a missile unit alongside troops, weapons and ammunition. The growing...
When Anduril announced a $910 million drone production facility in Ohio, it was not politics as usual. The main message came from Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, while Representative Mike Carey’s press release thanked the governor. Members of Congress usually take...
Earnings Growth and Iran Optimism Lift European Markets to New Highs European stock markets climbed to fresh record highs on Thursday as strong corporate earnings and renewed optimism over a possible U.S. Iran agreement boosted investor confidence. Markets also reacted...
In late June, cadets at the Israeli military’s officer training school sat through a lecture by Ofer Winter, a retired brigadier general and a polarizing figure in the Israel Defense Forces. According to Haaretz, Winter told the future officers that...
Woman milks a cow in northern Mongolia. Credit by Katiekk, Shutterstock By Solange Bandiaky-Badji WASHINGTON DC, Aug 6 2026 (IPS) This is supposed to be the year the world finally sees and recognizes pastoralists. The United Nations has designated 2026 as the International...
Israel Launches Strikes After Deadly Blast as Diplomatic Talks Continue Israel carried out retaliatory strikes in southern Lebanon after two Israeli soldiers were killed during a security operation, even as Israeli and Lebanese officials continued U.S. mediated negotiations in Rome...
Diesel fuel exports from the United States hit an all-time high last week, driven by shortages of the fuel in other parts of the world as a result of the energy crisis in the Middle East. According to the Energy...
Oil Markets Bet on Diplomacy Despite Rising Geopolitical Risks Global oil prices have retreated toward $80 per barrel as investors increasingly bet that a new U.S. Iran agreement will reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore energy flows from the...
A Rohingya refugee points to the landslide that killed two of Abdu Rozork’s daughters and two of their children in their bamboo shelter in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, last month. Credit: Mohammed Zonaid/IPS By Mohammed Zonaid COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh, Aug...
US Japan Currency Intervention Signals Shift Away From G7 Coordination Last week’s joint intervention by the United States and Japan to support the Japanese yen has raised fresh questions about the future of international currency coordination, as the operation proceeded...
Introduction: Over the past decade, though the global venture investment in Artificial intelligence (AI) grew over thirty fold – from $8.3 billion to $259 billion – the productivity growth in the United States stood at just 1.4% – much lesser...
Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el Mandeb Strait, two of the world’s most strategic maritime chokepoints, fell sharply on Wednesday after Yemen’s Houthi movement claimed missile attacks on Saudi oil tankers, raising fresh concerns over...
Former Bangladesh cricket captain Shakib Al Hasan’s ancestral home was attacked on Wednesday after he participated in ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s first public media interaction since her removal from power in 2024, during which she declared that she would...
Iran and Oman are close to agreeing on joint management of the Strait of Hormuz, media have reported, citing a statement by Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmaeil Baghaei. Crude oil prices have been trending lower, in the meantime, with Brent...
The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, wider tensions in the Red Sea and the oil price spikes these circumstances occassion have made one thing abundantly clear: Gulf countries and global markets are dependent on vulnerable maritime routes. But while...
On 21 July, Houthi forces announced a blockade of Saudi Arabian ports. The next day, the spot rate to move a very large crude carrier from the Gulf to China hit $77.96 a tonne — four times its five-year average,...
Valar Atomics, a three-year-old microreactor developer that has a forged a close relationship with the Trump administration, has raised $1 billion in its Series B funding round as investors increasingly bet that the White House’s overhaul of nuclear regulations will clear the way for...
Cybele Mayes-Osterman , a reporter at the USA Today, wrote a story on April 16 that buried the lede… The enlisted personnel on board ships deployed to the Iranian war zone are not being adequately fed. Her article — Cookies,...
My nearly 32-year career in uniform has taught me many lessons. One of the most important is that the gap between operational military success and strategic political outcomes can be significant and is rarely, if at all, closed by increased...
In recent weeks, Iran has gone on the offensive, striking commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz and launching a surprise attack on U.S. forces in Jordan. From a distance, these moves look like self-defeating escalation. Why should a badly...
The Spanish PM has been one of few European leaders to stand up to Trump. He now faces coercive diplomacy and an emboldened far right at home The dramatic footage last Thursday of thousands of migrants entering Spain’s north African enclave...
In recent days, there has been a stir over a major global music event that introduced five new categories at the 69th Grammy Awards in 2027, including Best Asian Pop Music Performance, Best Latin Song, Best Traditional Pop Vocal Performance,...
President Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting with Russian Defence Ministry leadership, Kremlin, Moscow, August 5, 2026 The Russian President Vladimir Putin fired the political equivalent of Oroshnik hypersonic missile Wednesday to scatter the recent pot shots by hawkish factions at...
UPS has eliminated the Midnight shift at its Manhattan hub, forcing full-time workers onto split shifts with five to six unpaid hours between them—too short for many to travel home and sleep. Workers sleep in the cafeteria, wander the streets...
Happy birthday to us! Today (August 6), Asia Sentinel completes 20 years of informed analysis, news, and commentary on business, politics, economics, and pressing social issues in Asia. We said when we started that we are independent of all governments and...
The irony of geo-political history is that circumstances shift drastically even for a hegemon. Türkiye joined the US F-35 program as a NATO member and planned to buy over 100 jets. But Washington expelled it in July 2019 after Ankara...
As the war in Iran has reached its fifth month, progress fails to be made and opposition continues to mount. And while President Donald Trump certainly deserves his fair share of the blame, the playbook he’s using is in no...
Reprinted with permission from Trita Parsi’s Substack. Oman and Iran appear close to a temporary arrangement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, potentially providing both an exit from the current round of fighting and the foundation for a more durable...
Extreme heat and drought are beginning to impair Europe’s energy system. Refineries are losing cooling efficiency, river levels are forcing cuts to nuclear generation, hydroelectric output is falling and inland fuel transport is becoming more expensive as barges carry smaller...
Trapped in a deadly mountain pass, the caravan fights for survival as Darius faces his greatest test yet. Read Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part...
The Middle East war has caused what may well be an unprecedented degree of disruption in global energy flows. While crude oil gets a lot of the attention—and with good reason—the situation in liquefied gas is arguably worse and deserving...
There is a way to work out which direction markets have been moving without looking at a single price. Watch who is handed the megaphone. When things go up, the optimists get the panel seats and the magazine covers. When...
President Trump’s periodic mentions of attempting a third presidential run have largely been dismissed as jokes throughout the last decade. Recently, however, these instances seem increasingly serious. Since 2018, he has alternated between quipping about remaining in office for 10...
Tech giants are tapping fuel cell developers and providers to power data and AI computing centers with technology that is cleaner and faster to implement than a conventional gas-powered electricity source. Fuel cells generate electricity by directly converting chemical energy...
India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day war in May 2025 and the media narrative was dominated by fighter jets, drones and missiles. But the most consequential contest unfolded in orbit a few hundred kilometers up. That short war was,...
December 2025. Inside an Alibaba-affiliated lab, an agent called ROME, mid-training, quietly diverts GPU capacity for itself and opens a hidden channel to the outside world. Nobody told it to. March 2026. Amazon’s retail site goes dark for six hours. An...
Venezuela’s oil production is growing at a crucial time, with conflict in the Middle East disrupting traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, thereby crimping global petroleum supply. Since the U.S. captured President Nicolas Maduro in a daring night raid in...
Bangladesh Bank is beginning to loosen monetary policy from an unusually favorable position on the currency front. Despite persistent inflation and deep strains in the banking system, the taka has been among the most stable currencies in South Asia and...
The US Treasury Department has removed Fly Baghdad and two aircraft from its sanctions list. This action follows earlier targeting of the airline for suspected Iran links. The airline’s owner, Basheer Al-Shabbani, however, remains under active US sanctions. Authorities have...
The Philippines is shaping up to be ground zero for the global geologic hydrogen revolution. The Southeast Asian nation reportedly has the largest natural hydrogen seeps anywhere on Earth, indicating that huge volumes of hydrogen could be stored under the...
State department informs Congress of planned closures in Canada, Grenada, Japan, Indonesia and Cameroon The US state department is to shut five foreign consulates and missions across Asia, Africa, North America and the Caribbean, drawing criticism that it is leaving a...
The Strait of Hormuz, the Middle East’s main choke point, is effectively closed as Iranian attacks on vessels continue, and the ripple effect is tearing through global supply chains. While crude oil and natural gas disruptions have grabbed headlines, liquefied...
ALBAWABA- The United States has lifted counterterrorism sanctions on three Iranian airlines and two aircraft previously designated for alleged links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in a move that coincides with ongoing negotiations over the reopening of the...
Uzbekistan, one of Central Asia’s economic drivers, is experiencing a significant expansion of Chinese economic influence. Bilateral trade during the first half of 2026 grew to $7.7 billion, according to official Uzbek government data, making China by far Uzbekistan’s largest trade...
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz and efforts to extract payments for safe passage — plus, more recently, the Houthis’ move to attack Saudi shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — have highlighted the risks of maritime chokepoints to...
India’s ONGC is poised to take over operation of two Venezuelan oil projects from state-owned PDVSA, which would give the Indian producer direct operational control over assets of the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves. Reuters exclusively reported Wednesday that...
A visit by FBI Director Kash Patel to Moscow, the first by the head of the bureau in a decade, could prove to be far more than a symbolic gesture of cooperation. It may also become part of a broader...
By CIVICUS Aug 5 2026 (IPS) CIVICUS speaks about China’s recently implemented Ethnic Unity Law with Gulchehra Hoja, a correspondent for Reporters Without Borders and a Uyghur activist and journalist known for her reporting on human rights abuses against Uyghur people in...
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