Headlines

Why US presidents end up cursing Benjamin Netanyahu

When the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ordered a strike on the Lebanese capital of Beirut on June 14, Donald Trump was not amused. Fearing that the attack threatened an agreement with Iran on ending the war between the two countries, the US president lashed out.

Asia

Trump or Prevost?: US, Catholic Church and the global poor

The real beginning is with Rerum Novarum, the encyclical that Leo XIII (the predecessor of Leo XIV) issued in 1891. In 1891, the Church had lost the Papal State, which it had held for over a thousand years, for some twenty years. It was no longer one of the major forces in

Asia

Two men jailed in Britain for spying for China

LONDON, June 18 - Two men, including one who worked as a British immigration officer, were jailed on Thursday after being convicted of spying on prominent pro-democracy dissidents now based in Britain on behalf of Hong Kong, and ultimately China.

Asia

The robot wingmen the US hopes can outlast China’s missiles

Facing a shrinking fighter force and a surging Chinese air arm, the US Air Force is betting that robotic wingmen — not more manned jets — will decide who controls the skies over the western Pacific. This month, multiple media outlets reported that the US Air Force awarded

Asia

Why Xi is walling in China’s money – and why it won’t work

TOKYO – China’s latest fix for its ailing economy: build a better birdcage. The metaphor runs deep in Chinese culture, where enclosures for pet birds have long captured the tension between freedom and control — the belief that markets, like captive creatures, need defined

Asia

ASEAN engages Russia while G7 isolates it

The arrival of leaders from across Southeast Asia in the Russian city of Kazan for the ASEAN–Russia Commemorative Summit on June 17-18, 2026, represents far more than a routine diplomatic gathering. Partially overlapping with a Group of Seven (G7) meeting in France, where

Asia

India keeps undermining the Bangladesh reset it claims to want

When Bangladesh’s newly elected Prime Minister Tarique Rahman took office earlier this year, there was a tentative hint that New Delhi and Dhaka might finally transcend the bitter recriminations that followed ex-leader Sheikh Hasina’s dramatic ouster in a 2024 uprising, from

Asia