STEM crisis in China’s universities; preliminary deal struck: 5 weekend reads

If 2025 is remembered in Islamabad and Washington as a year of renewed engagement, it will not be because old alliances were revived or decades of mistrust suddenly disappeared. Rather, it is likely to be recalled as a moment when realism took hold and shifting global priorities pushed both sides toward pragmatism instead of prolonged…

Former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Seoul court on Thursday for spearheading an insurrection through his December 3, 2024, martial law decree. Yoon and other defendants, including his former defense minister, who was given 30 years in prison, undermined the core values of democracy by trying to…

Malaysia is seeking chip deals with Brazil and India, the government has said, issuing a stark warning that the US market may be lost to the country’s exporters. As tariff-pummelled Southeast Asian nations scour for new, friendlier markets, the Brics grouping has come into focus. The bloc, which includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South…

A foreign national has been arrested at Hong Kong International Airport on suspicion of criminal damage and drug possession after a viral video showed him wrecking self-check-in kiosks. The video, posted on social media on Monday morning, showed a man in the airport’s departure hall pushing over three self-check-in kiosks and hitting them repeatedly with…

A former Hong Kong opposition politician has argued that China’s one-party rule system is incompatible with the country’s constitution and fails to safeguard people’s fundamental rights, as he defended his calls to end “dictatorship” in a high-profile subversion trial. Ex-lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan, a former chairman of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic…