Headlines

Toll the Malacca Strait — and price out American hegemony

On April 22, Indonesia’s finance minister went off-topic during a symposium and raised the possibility of tolling the Strait of Malacca in light of the current Hormuz crisis, drawing swift rejections from the foreign ministers of Singapore, Malaysia and even Indonesia. All

Asia

Three ways South Korea can buy alliance insurance

The case for South Korea hedging its relationship with the United States may have become harder to dismiss. Washington’s trade policies and the economic consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran have raised the cost of close alignment at the same time they have weakened

Asia

Under Trump, record numbers say personal finances getting worse

Just over a year after President Donald Trump promised the US was entering a “golden age,” Americans are expressing unprecedented pessimism about the state of the economy. Gallup on Tuesday released a poll showing that 55% of Americans say their personal finances are getting

Asia

Hidden Chinese history of Australia’s gold rush is going global

Taiwanese pop music superstar Jay Chou, known in Mandarin as Zhou Jielun (周杰倫), has put Australia’s Sovereign Hill on the map. A nationally renowned tourist attraction in Golden Point, a suburb of Ballarat, Victoria, Sovereign Hill is an open-air museum that depicts the first

Asia