United Nations’ demographers project that, by the end of this century, Turkey’s labor force will fall by half and Iran’s will fall by two-fifths while Israel’s will double. Turkish women in 2023 were estimated to have an average of just 1.5 children over their lifetime, half of Israel’s total fertility rate of 3 children per […]

The post Israel is the future of the Middle East appeared first on Asia Times.

Chinese leaders must be either confused or delighted by the stream of visits they have been receiving from European heads of state and government. Italy’s Giorgia Meloni may think that her five-day visit to China was something special. To the Chinese, however, it will have felt quite routine. China does, after all, describe itself as […]

The post Giorgia Meloni and Europe’s incoherence over China appeared first on Asia Times.

Amid increasing concerns over espionage and geopolitical control, many countries are strategically bypassing Chinese subsea cables in the Indo-Pacific. Complexities surrounding subsea cables – fiber optic cables laid on the ocean floor, used for transmitting data across continents in the Indo-Pacific – are deeply entangled with geopolitical, technological, and security issues. Subsea cables are indispensable […]

The post The key to de-risking Indo-Pacific subsea cables appeared first on Asia Times.

The US unemployment rate rose to 4.3% in July, the highest level in three years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning (August 2), as the US economy added just 114,000 jobs, far below the consensus estimate of 175,000. US consumers, buoyed by an unprecedented rise in federal transfer payments to individuals, sustained GDP […]

The post US unemployment jumps as handout high wears off appeared first on Asia Times.

Recently appointed British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged his loyalty to British King Charles III on July 6, 2024, continuing a tradition that dates back centuries. However, since the leadership role taken by Prime Minister David Lloyd George in World War I, the monarchy’s political influence has become progressively ceremonial and even more precarious since […]

The post How powerful are the world’s remaining royals? appeared first on Asia Times.

NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The name should have been changed long ago, when NATO shifted its focus and operations south and eastward. NATO is shifting once again, most seriously by expanding its membership without any serous planning about how to secure its new flanks. Outgoing NATO Chief  Jens Stoltenberg said last month that China should face consequences […]

The post Make way for imperial NATO with new flanks to secure appeared first on Asia Times.

At NATO’s 75th anniversary summit there has been, as you’d expect, a lot of attention on Russia’s war against Ukraine. It’s undoubtedly the most significant immediate challenge to NATO with wider implications for the rest of the globe. Yet beyond the headlines of the war in Ukraine, an even more significant challenge is looming. There’s […]

The post NATO summit matched by rise of rival SCO appeared first on Asia Times.

First Biden, then Macron and next week the unfortunate Rishi Sunak. Japan’s Kishida, Germany’s Scholz and Canada’s Trudeau remain in office only because the election cycle doesn’t require them to assay the voters. For the first time since modern European states were defined by the Treaty of Westphalia, every government of every major Western country […]

The post The fool’s-based international order appeared first on Asia Times.

After the sacking last year of the defense minister, at least nine generals and several senior executives of the military industry, the People’s Liberation Army – once the kingmaker of Chinese politics – is being purged again. President Xi Jinping has vowed to “enrich the toolbox for punishing new types of corruption and hidden corruption” […]

The post Xi’s purges cutting PLA political clout down to size  appeared first on Asia Times.

President Biden provoked Russia’s attack on Ukraine by proposing to bring the former Soviet republic into NATO, former President Trump Donald Trump told the popular “All In” podcast June 21, a bombshell statement unreported by mainstream US news media. “Biden was saying all the wrong things,” Trump told venture capitalist David Sacks. “And one of the worst things he […]

The post Trump: Biden NATO plans provoked the Ukraine war appeared first on Asia Times.

The Economist has a good story on the rise of Chinese science. In terms of “high-impact” (i.e. highly cited) publications, China has soared past the US and Europe: Now, these numbers have to be taken with a grain of salt. Measuring the impact of papers by looking at how many other papers cite them can be a […]

The post Putting China’s science surge in proper perspective appeared first on Asia Times.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Europe’s toughest opponent of military backing for Ukraine, was shot multiple times May 15 by an as yet unidentified assailant. He was transported by helicopter to a trauma center at Banska Bystrica, where he is fighting for his life. His condition is not known. Few details have been published about the would-be […]

The post Does shooting of Slovak leader heighten war risk? appeared first on Asia Times.

Given the spate of news about international trade lately, Americans might be surprised to learn that the United States isn’t very dependent on it. Indeed, looking at trade as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) – a metric economists sometimes call the “openness index” – the US is one of the least trade-oriented nations […]

The post US is one of world’s least trade-oriented nations appeared first on Asia Times.

When big questions about American foreign policy collide with an election, it’s rarely good news for a sitting president. Like many leaders before him, US President Joe Biden has had some of these questions thrust on him, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some have their origins in past administrations, such as the withdrawal from […]

The post Will foreign policy cost Biden the election? appeared first on Asia Times.

In a recent post, I tried to warn people about the substantial and growing chance of World War 3. My post was focused on the risk that a war will occur, but it didn’t really focus on the risk that the US and its allies will be defeated in that war. Yes, nuclear weapons are a […]

The post Sizing up the China-Russia ‘New Axis’ appeared first on Asia Times.

Attention farmers and other business borrowers: Interest rates are going to stay higher longer than expected just a few months ago. Back in late 2023, financial markets were betting the Federal Reserve would lower interest rates six or seven times this year. Fed policymakers were more cautious but even they were projecting they’d lower their […]

The post The long wait for lower US interest rates appeared first on Asia Times.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on April 8 warned China that rising investment in new industries will lead to “significant risk to workers and businesses in the United States and the rest of the world,” adding that China “is now simply too large for the rest of the world to absorb this overcapacity.” Secretary Yellen […]

The post When supply creates demand: Yellen’s errors of omission appeared first on Asia Times.

The paradigm shift in US economic policy began during the 2016 presidential election campaign. It was in that campaign that the candidates of both parties agreed on scrapping the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP was a proposed free trade deal between the US and a bunch of friendly Asian countries that was intended to create […]

The post US would be insane to go it alone on trade and industry appeared first on Asia Times.

A US Navy destroyer, USS Rafael Peralta recently went to Japan’s Ishigaki island, between Okinawa and Taiwan. It wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms. The local authorities at first refused permission for the ship to dock – claiming the water wasn’t deep enough. They later relented, but the local dockworkers union went on strike to protest the ship’s visit.  Okinawa’s […]

The post US forces unwelcome at Japanese ports and airfields appeared first on Asia Times.

The latest developments in the South China Sea territorial dispute point to ASEAN’s long-running failure to deal with a major regional problem, highlighting the regional organization’s inherent weakness. As the confrontations between Chinese and Philippine vessels near the Second Thomas Shoal within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) have grown sharper, the South China Sea […]

The post ASEAN stands idly by, as usual, on South China Sea appeared first on Asia Times.