Policy

Korean Job Seekers Turn to Japan’s Employment Market Japan’s Foreign Workforce Surges, but Job Quality Remains in Question Reports of Mistreatment Proliferate Amid Broker and Staffing-Agency Involvement The number of young Koreans seeking employmen

China’s Manufacturing Sector Contracts for the First Time in Five Months Amid Weak Domestic Demand and Investment Cut-Price Exports to Clear Inventories Encroach on Core Markets in South Korea, Germany and Japan Industrial Policy Fallout Spills Into Falling Corporate Profits and Trade Frictions

China’s export-first strategy delivered a record $992 billion surplus in 2024 Heavy subsidies helped Chinese industries, especially EVs, outpace Western competitors China and the West are now managing rivalry, not pursuing convergence

Trump Cancels Massive Strikes on Iran Without Prior Notice to Israel Three Gulf States Urge Restraint Over Fears of a Strait of Hormuz Blockade and Attacks on Oil Facilities Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Emerges as a Key Middle East Power Broker After Spearheading 14-Nation Maritime Defense Coalition

U.S. launches comprehensive review of European defense posture European allies pressed to assume greater responsibility for conventional defense Strategic focus shifts to the Indo-Pacific to counter China The U.S.

China counters Western “overcapacity” claims with market-economy logic Automation and supply-chain clustering underscore genuine manufacturing competitiveness U.S.

Professional civil services limit the economic damage linked to populist rule Patronage replaces expertise with loyalty and weakens public performance Merit-based hiring protects growth, contracts and institutional stability

Occupational licensing has expanded far beyond high-risk professions Entry barriers can raise incumbent income while restricting competition Reform should preserve necessary licences but remove rules that no longer protect the public

Widening Attack-Defense Cost Gap Created by Low-Cost, Mass-Produced Drones Intensifying War of Attrition in Russia’s Rear Areas Through Saturation Strikes and Dispersed Operations Rapid Growth in Global Military Drone Market Shifts the Center of Gravity in Modern Warfare

Three countries, one pattern: delay and resource wealth turns violent Nigeria, Mozambique and Peru all had warning and ignored it Unmediated resource wealth is what destabilizes, not resource wealth itself

Oil price shocks redraw local power, not just budgets Conflict clusters around oilfields even when national numbers stay calm Governments are watching the wrong map Between February and April 2026, the pric

Nvidia Launches AI Security Alliance with Industry Partners Rising AI-Driven Security Threats Accelerate Responses from Leading AI Companies U.S.

U.S. imposes 10–12.5% tariffs on 60 economies under forced-labor rationale China maintains existing countermeasures against U.S. while signaling further retaliation Escalating reprisals could blunt tariff impact by weighing on U.S.

U.S.

AI Server Memory Concentration Deepens Amid Uncertainty Over Support for Samsung, SK Bottlenecks Worsened by Downcycle Investment Cuts and Apple’s Supplier Squeeze China-Made Memory Sourcing Push Draws Sharper Scrutiny of Apple

Trump administration invokes Section 301 to impose another round of tariffs on 60 countries Washington seeks tariff revenue to offset mounting deficits and debt Inflation, higher interest rates, and slower growth could ultimately worsen fiscal risks

US electricity market increasingly strained by surging data center demand State and local governments moving to block or delay new facilities Data center projects stalling before construction or remaining idle after completion

Europe’s AI use is rising faster than its depth of implementation Domestic peer pressure can trigger adoption but cannot prove value Policy should reward measured outcomes and shared evidence Only 7 percent of firms in a

Russia and Ukraine sustaining electronic warfare through GPS spoofing operations Jamming and anti-jamming technologies deployed extensively across the battlefield Rapidly changing nature of warfare redirecting military investment toward drones and AI

US and Iran abandon ceasefire MOU and resume reciprocal airstrikes Mounting war costs exposing the US to deeper economic and political risks Iran’s economy already near collapse as hard-liner–negotiator power struggle intensifies The US Embassy