Headlines

Chip boom’s dirty secret hiding in Samsung’s record earnings

Samsung just posted an operating profit of 89.5 trillion won, roughly US$62 billion, for the second quarter. That’s a jump of 1,814% from a year earlier. Revenue climbed 130% to 171.5 trillion won, a company record. And Samsung’s shares fell anyway. SK Hynix, the other pillar

Asia

The Washington dissensus on Myanmar

US President Donald Trump has remade American foreign policy into a dangerous mix of belligerence, atrocity crimes and incoherent lunacy. The broad elements of the Trump administration’s almost non-existent Myanmar policy are well known. The gutting of the US Agency for

Asia

Why South Korean stocks just crashed

Explaining stock market movements is always a little bit of a fool’s errand; no one really understands why stocks boom or crash on a given day or in a given week. Over the long run, the stock market displays lots of “excess volatility” — prices move up and down much more than

Asia

Can China restrain Iran? Gulf states test Beijing's influence

BEIRUT/RIYADH, July 30 - As the Iran war escalates again, Gulf Arab states are looking to China - not Washington - to use its economic leverage over Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz and Red Sea, testing how far Beijing is able and willing to pressurise Tehran.

Asia

Myanmar’s junta slowly but surely winning its war with ASEAN

The multidimensional crisis that has gripped Myanmar since the military coup on February 1, 2021, has entered a new chapter — one increasingly complex and riddled with contradictions. The move by military chief and coup maker Senior General Min Aung Hlaing to overthrow the

Asia

US military says it hit dozens of Iran's IRGC targets

WASHINGTON/CAIRO, July 30 - The U.S. military said it struck dozens of Islamic Revolutionary Guard targets in Iran, including military command centres and drone facilities, in a two-hour operation launched after Tehran fired ballistic missiles at U.S. forces in the Middle East.

Asia