Headlines

Humanity isn’t ready for AI’s biological threat

Artificial intelligence is rapidly learning to autonomously design and run biological experiments, but the systems intended to govern those capabilities are struggling to keep pace. AI company OpenAI and biotech company Ginkgo Bioworks announced in February 2026 that OpenAI’s

Quad needs to break China’s rare earth hold on Myanmar

The Indo-Pacific’s quest for critical mineral security is colliding with an uncomfortable reality: the geography of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) does not map neatly onto internationally recognized sovereignty. As the Quad — comprising the United States, India, Japan and

Iran war threatening to shatter the global economy

The world economy survived the shocks of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which has had limited impact on economic growth. But the escalation of hostilities in the Middle East has transformed what had been, until early 2026, a surprisingly benign outlook into a far more uncertain

US Air Force unready for a prolonged war with China

Warnings are mounting that the US Air Force lacks the capability and capacity to defeat China in a high-end conflict. But the deeper problem is not whether American airpower can strike China hard and fast enough — it is whether the US can sustain a fight without exhausting

US Hormuz blockade, tariffs jolt China

China has urged the United States and Iran to return to the negotiating table after Washington launched an operation to close the Strait of Hormuz on Monday and threatened to impose 50% tariffs on countries providing weapons to Tehran. US President Donald Trump, on April 12,

Trump: with God on his side?

Well, it was quite a Sunday, what with Péter Magyar beating Viktor Orbán by a landslide in Hungary’s election, Rory McIlroy seeing off Scottie Scheffler to win his second US Masters and Donald Trump announcing that the US Navy will blockade Iran’s own blockade of the Strait of

Iran war as a cage Trump can’t escape

Six weeks into what the Trump administration has branded “Operation Epic Fury,” it is worth pausing to ask the question that Washington’s war managers seem constitutionally incapable of posing to themselves: what exactly did we think was going to happen next? The opening salvo