Headlines

Bond markets overpowering the AI trade

Global investors are still trading as though the AI boom mattered more than the bond market. They may be about to discover the opposite is true. The most important threat to Asian equities is no longer tariffs, China’s slowdown or even geopolitics alone. It’s the collapse of

Asia

IEA chief: Only weeks of oil inventories left thanks to Iran war

With no end in sight to the Strait of Hormuz crisis caused by President Donald Trump’s illegal war with Iran, the head of the International Energy Agency warned Monday that global energy supplies are running dangerously low. IEA executive director Faith Birol told reporters in

Asia

Gwangju massacre deniers still seek comfort in North plot

Originally published May 18, 2021, this article is republished five years later to the day with just a bit of updating. More than a week before elite South Korean troops – sent to put down pro-democracy protests in the southwestern city of Gwangju – sparked an uprising with

Asia

Cuban drone crisis: US fears Russia-China Caribbean threat

As the US confronts growing fears that Russian, Chinese and Iranian-backed drone and intelligence activities are turning Cuba into a new strategic pressure point near US territory, the island is reemerging as a focal point of great-power rivalry in the Western Hemisphere. This

Asia

Malaysia PM meets with king amid talk of early elections

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 - Malaysia's King Sultan Ibrahim held an audience with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Monday, a day after the premier floated the possibility of calling an early election, according to a statement on the monarch's official Facebook page.

Asia

Myanmar’s resource curse fueling its forever war

Myanmar’s war is often described as a clash of ideologies, ethnic identities and competing visions of the state. That is true, but incomplete. At its core, Myanmar’s crisis is also a resource-driven conflict, intensified by geography. The generals did not cling to power for the

Asia

Trump-Xi summit reset cause for concern in Indonesia

The Trump-Xi summit in Beijing was supposed to signal a new phase of calmer US-China relations. Instead, it exposed a deeper reality that should concern Indonesia and much of Southeast Asia, as stability between great powers can sometimes come at the expense of middle powers.

Asia