Author: frkhokhar@gmail.com

On the weathered facade of the Kiu Kong Mansion on Nathan Road, two freshly painted cats now curl into the bustle of Hong Kong’s Yau Ma Tei. The mural features a ragdoll and a British shorthair cat, two breeds loved by Hongkongers, bringing a burst of colour and whimsy to the ageing building. With its…

As the American and Israeli war with Iran unfolds, some American Christians are speaking of the conflict in biblical terms, mapping end-time prophecies on to current events in the Middle East. In a sermon on March 1, 2026, for example, John Hagee, founder of Christians United for Israel, described the war as part of a…

By the second half of the 21st century, the Sino-Indian relationship will become the world’s most significant geopolitical relationship, dislodging even the complex China-US cooperative rivalry. By 2050, the world’s three largest economies are likely to comprise some combination of China, India and the United States. PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts this exact order – with the US…

Japan’s House of Representatives on Friday passed the FY2026 budget, setting the stage for a fight in the upper house — where the government lacks a majority — as opposition parties seek to delay the budget’s passage (they can’t block it indefinitely) and deal a political blow to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The prime minister…

In his monumental work “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, historian Edward Gibbon argued that empires rarely collapse suddenly. Their decline is usually gradual, shaped by long-term structural changes. Yet, history occasionally records moments when a single strategic miscalculation accelerates the process. The question worth asking is whether the United…