Japan as a nuclear power, Chinas first female C919 captain: 5 weekend reads

The moment that many a US Treasury secretary feared for decades may have arrived: when Washington’s top bankers turn against US government debt. Case in point: America’s No 2 financier in Asia — China — is reportedly advising banks to cut their exposure to US government securities. Though officials in Beijing haven’t confirmed the advisory,…

I spent many years investigating corruption in Asia. But it’s the same everywhere. It destroys economies, societies, and the citizens in them (other than the relative few in on the racket). It’s also part and parcel of China’s operating manual, and a weapon of war. China makes adept use of local corruption – sometimes even…

At the opening of the Munich Security Conference this year, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that the rules-based international order is eroding before our eyes. His remarks echoed the conference’s annual report, which painted a picture of fragmentation and disorder. His remarks also echoed a growing anxiety across Europe: that the system built after 1945…

Is the Trump administration planning to bring down Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro? The short answer is: probably not deliberately, but it might stumble that way anyway—and that’s precisely the problem. The recent escalation tells a familiar story. The administration is weighing military strikes against drug cartels operating inside Venezuela as part of a broader strategy…

Pakistani police and military forces killed more than 100 “Indian-backed terrorists” in counterterrorism operations across the restive southwestern province of Balochistan over the past 40 hours, government officials said on Sunday, a day after coordinated suicide and gun attacks killed 33 people, mostly civilians. The raids began early on Saturday at multiple locations across Balochistan,…

A master’s degree student in China, who has taught hundreds of adults and children to ride bicycles over the past two years and earned 270,000 yuan (US$39,000) from it, recently went viral on social media. The man, whose surname is Li, is a third-year master’s degree candidate at Shanghai University of Sport (SUP) majoring in…