US-China trade pact President Trump just signed fails to resolve 3 fundamental issues
Jan 18, 2020 11:36 am UTC| Insights & Views
U.S. President Donald Trump signed a trade deal with China on Jan. 15 intended as a first phase toward a more comprehensive agreement between the two countries. In exchange for some tariff relief, China promised to buy...
US and Iran have a long, troubled history
Jan 18, 2020 11:18 am UTC| Insights & Views
Relations between the United States and Iran have been fraught for decades at least since the U.S. helped overthrow a democracy-minded prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953. The U.S. then supported the long,...
Iran-U.S. crisis reminds us how culture matters in war time
Jan 15, 2020 02:57 am UTC| Insights & Views
As tensions have ratcheted up between the United States and Iran, a series of tweets by President Donald Trump threatening the deliberate targeting of Iranian cultural sites triggered a strong negative reaction around the...
Why Indonesia keeps sending mixed signals on the Natuna sea dispute with China
Jan 14, 2020 23:35 pm UTC| Insights & Views
Indonesia has been sending mixed signals in responding to Chinas breach of its exclusive economic zone around the Natuna Islands, near the South China Sea. The Natuna sea is within 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres) of...
How real is the threat of cyberwar between Iran and the US?
Jan 14, 2020 01:36 am UTC| Insights & Views Technology
The world shook at the news in early January that a US drone strike had killed Irans top military general, Qassem Soleimani, outside Baghdads airport. According to the Pentagon, the attack was conducted as a decisive...
Iran flexes its missile muscle with terrible consequences
Jan 14, 2020 00:34 am UTC| Insights & Views
Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) recently demonstrated its sophisticated missile technology by attacking U.S. military bases in Iraq. But later the same day, its missiles unintentionally destroyed an...
Why the U.S. is unlikely to go to war with Iran
Jan 10, 2020 10:50 am UTC| Insights & Views
The killing of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani by the United States and Irans response raises many important legal and strategic issues. Was the killing legal under international laws regarding the use of force?...
Johannesburg in a time of darkness: Ivan Vladislavić’s new memoir reminds us of the city’s fragility
Economist Chris Richardson on an ‘ugly’ inflation result and the coming budget
Biden administration tells employers to stop shackling workers with ‘noncompete agreements’
Labour can afford to be far more ambitious with its economic policies – voters are on board
IceCube researchers detect a rare type of energetic neutrino sent from powerful astronomical objects