Headlines

Trump has actually started to decouple US from China

Donald Trump is headed to China with a whole bunch of top US CEOs in tow to talk about trade. There is probably a post to be written here about how Trump is creating a new kind of “America, Inc” centered around his own person, using a combination of tariffs, export controls,

Asia

Africa: Africa Eyes Shared Prosperity

[Daily News] Nairobi -- TANZANIA has urged African countries to harness their abundant natural resources to build a strong and resilient continental economy, while advocating for global multilateralism that upholds mutual partnerships and sovereign equality.

Africa: The Global Epidemic of Violence in an Age of Impunity

[IPS] New York -- Violence has metastasized into humanity's baseline condition. Yet international institutions remain paralyzed by vetoes and rivalry, offering hollow declarations while dehumanization becomes normalized. Coordinated action, not gestures, is desperately needed.

Hormuz blockade and the fracturing of Asia’s growth narrative

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz on March 4, 2026, was not merely a localized military maneuver; it was the moment the “Asian Century” hit a wall of physical reality. With Brent Crude surging past US$120 per barrel and liquefied natural gas (LNG) spot prices in Asia jumping

Asia

Idle warriors

How a public health initiative to reduce air pollution has created ‘full-time citizen complainants’ who patrol the city - by Aeon Video Watch on Aeon

Widow’s Bay Is a Menacing and Hilarious Mash-up

In spring 2025, OpenAI rolled out an update of ChatGPT that featured a new image generator. The update proved wildly popular in large part due to how easy this new tool made it for users to produce polished custom images of whatever they could dream to prompt. What wild

California Shows Why Nonpartisan Primaries Stink

California’s Republican Party is so weak that no Republican has won statewide office there in 20 years. Yet there’s some danger this fall that the Golden State—where nearly twice as many voters register Democratic as Republican—will elect a Republican governor. It’s even

Bob Dylan’s Argument With God

Ron Rosenbaum’s latest book, Bob Dylan: Things Have Changed, is not a biography. It is instead a “ kind of biography”—which is a distinction with a difference. It is, in keeping with Rosenbaum’s long record of fine-tuned literary analysis mixed with historical and, yes,