The world is now witness to a new phase in the Ukraine war. The attack on the Kerch bridge and the subsequent retaliatory Russian missiles strikes on Kiev and other Ukrainian cities indicate that the war is escalating. But just how far will this escalation go and is a full-scale nuclear exchange – however unthinkable […]
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TOKYO – Other than – perhaps? – trolling Alan Greenspan, it’s not clear what the Nobel committee intended by honoring former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke with the prize for economics. Year after year, “maestro” economist Greenspan gets overlooked by the folks in Stockholm. And rightfully so. The damage from the bubbles he blew late […]
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MANILA – Amid revitalized bilateral relations, the Philippines and the US kicked off their first major wargames under new President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in style. The Kamandag, or Cooperation of the Warriors of the Sea, wargames started earlier this month, featuring 2,550 US Marines personnel with 630 Filipino counterparts, including 500 from the Philippine Marines […]
The post US-Philippines back in military lockstep vis-a-vis China appeared first on Asia Times.
Why is the United States concerned that Germany buys its energy from Russia The US has no objections to Germany buying its computers from China, its motorbikes from Japan, and its cheese from the Netherlands. The last four US presidents – Bush II, Obama, Trump and Biden – had little in common but they were […]
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As it has regularly done for decades, during the last few weeks the North Korean government reminded Washington, Seoul and Tokyo that it has unredressed grievances. Pyongyang signaled through several gestures that the long-running crisis on the Korean Peninsula will continue. First, paramount leader Kim Jong Un reiterated in a September 9 speech that “there can be […]
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Taiwan plans to build a new fleet of anti-submarine corvettes to hunt down Chinese submarines, a move that threatens to escalate already high and rising tensions around the self-governing island Beijing considers a renegade province. Taiwan’s Minister of National Defense, Chiu Kuo-cheng, announced this week that the island’s armed forces are prioritizing the anti-submarine ships […]
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Japan’s defense is changing, and bigger defense budgets and capability improvements are on the way. Exactly when this will occur is unclear, though Japan’s prime minister and other officials usually note, “within five years.” By Japan’s standards this is lightning speed. However, the Chinese threat that has concentrated Japanese minds on national defense is perhaps […]
The post Party congress will put China on path to war appeared first on Asia Times.
Japan’s Fumio Kishida-led administration is now enduring a new low in public popularity. Support for the Kishida cabinet was polled at 29%, falling below the 30% “danger zone” for the first time since the inauguration of the administration last October. This was from a record-high approval rating of 63.2% just after former prime minister Shinzo Abe […]
The post Abe’s death puts Kishida in a ratings danger zone appeared first on Asia Times.
Vladimir Lenin once said, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” The latter certainly seems to be the case in Russia now. As President Vladimir Putin’s faltering invasion of Ukraine stumbled on, September saw one Rubicon crossed after another, beginning with the stunning rout of Russian forces in Kharkiv […]
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Russia is taking over the Sakhalin-1 oil and gas project the same way it took over Sakhalin-2 earlier this year. Foreign investors who put politics ahead of production will soon be gone. The Western investor – Shell last time, ExxonMobil this time – has once again shown itself the door. The Japanese, on the other […]
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