World politics

World politics

In recent weeks China has released a series of statements, articles and photos, that analysts say signal an escalation in the ruling Chinese Communist Party's approach to Taiwan. Beijing claims Taiwan as a province and has vowed to annex it under what it terms reunification. China's military is not believed to be capable of a full invasion yet, but senior officials have recently started using sharper language.

I do not think we truly appreciate how disruptive, how devastating, this could be "That's one phone network not working for less than one day," he said. "Imagine the implications if a nation state took down all the networks? Or turned off the power during a heatwave? Or polluted our drinking water? Or crippled our financial system?"

For 75 years, the US has wielded wartime operational control (OPCON) of South Korean forces. The set-up has its origins in the Korean War which erupted in 1950 and largely ended with the truce of 1953. In simple terms, Seoul can command its troops only as long as there is no open conflict, and despite South Korean leadership taking on more and more responsibility in the intervening decades, a major breakout of hostilities would still see Washington take command.

Those most vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and abuse are, unsurprisingly, those who have less power or are treated with less respect: undocumented migrants; women in precarious employment; women with disabilities; LGBTQ women; young women and girls. Paradoxically, that helps to explain why the assault of Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico's president, has drawn such outrage domestically and internationally. A drunken man tried to kiss her neck and grabbed her chest as she spoke to citizens in the capital's streets.

Machismo in Mexico is so fucked up not even the president is safe, said Caterina Camastra, a professor and feminist, when I talked to her in Morelia, a city west of the Mexican capital this week. Succinct and to the point, it is a sentiment shared by many women in Mexico after watching the now viral video of a drunk man groping the country's first female president, Claudia Sheinbaum, as she walked from the National Palace to the education ministry on Monday.

Paul Reid, a Portland resident, sailed across the Mediterranean Sea recently with the Global Sumud Flotilla, a group aiming to break Israel's blockade of Gaza. As the flotilla of over 40 boats approached Gaza, they were intercepted by the Israeli military and taken into custody. Reid, along with many other activists, described mistreatment and harsh conditions in Israeli detention. What stuck with him most, however, was the reality that Palestinians endure much worse, for far longer, in the same system.

The United States on Friday accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Israel's ambassador to Mexico, Einat Kranz Neiger. According to senior U.S. officials who spoke to several national media outlets, Iran's Revolutionary Guard allegedly began planning the attack late last year, but the plot was contained and does not pose a current threat. The operation that foiled the assassination attempt, described anonymously by those officials, took place before the summer.

Guinea's military government leader, Mamady Doumbouya, has officially entered the presidential race, submitting his candidacy for the December 28 elections, aimed at restoring constitutional order following the general's 2021 coup. Doumbouya arrived at the West African country's Supreme Court in an armoured vehicle on Monday to formally hand in his candidacy, surrounded by special forces. He left without giving a statement.

Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi has reportedly acknowledged that her office released a video of troops abusing a Palestinian detainee. Israeli police have arrested a former military prosecutor after she leaked a video appearing to show soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee. Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi was detained overnight on Monday, according to the country's national security minister, following a scandal that erupted after she leaked a video, resigned and then disappeared.

Ifirst heard the expression "strategic incompetence" in El Salvador in December 1993. Along with my partner and two friends, I'd been recruited to do some electoral training there. We were working with the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, or FMLN, a coalition of leftist parties that had led a long-running guerrilla war against a series of US-backed autocratic governments. I'd visited El Salvador once before, during the 1989 elections, when armed troops were overseeing the voting.

"Iraq is the best it's ever been," Khudair al-Ali, a young man who works for one of Iraq's oil companies but drives cars for Careem, the Middle East's version of Uber, on weekends, enthuses. "But we still have problems," he says, gesturing at potholes he's trying to avoid. "The streets need to be fixed and there are too many cars in Baghdad."

Opposition members accuse President Samia Suluhu Hassan of cracking down on dissent to stay in power. Voters in Tanzania are heading to polling booths on Wednesday to vote for a new president, as well as members of parliament and councillors, in elections which are expected to continue the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) or Party of Revolution's 64-year-long grip on power.

You have to know that we're going to make a deal. I'm not going to be wasting my time,

The main Palestinian factions have said they have agreed that an independent committee of technocrats would take over the running of Gaza after Hamas said it had received clear guarantees from mediators that the war has effectively ended. A joint statement published on the Hamas website said the groups had agreed in a meeting in Cairo to hand over the administration of the Gaza Strip to a temporary Palestinian committee composed of independent technocrats', which will manage the affairs of life and basic services

In an article last week, Gu Jianyi, a researcher at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said China could consider developing a new industrial ecosystem inspired by successful US firms such as SpaceX, Palantir and Anduril. Such an ecosystem would be defined by Silicon Valley-style innovation, software-centric design, agile development and civil-military integration.

The takeaway for leaders? Empathy and adaptability aren't soft skills; they're strategic imperatives. There is a growing recognition among leaders that stress triggered by external events is no longer peripheral. In today's world, it's a central management challenge. To explore these dynamics, we conducted a cross-national study to understand how leaders respond when external unrest threatens to destabilize the emotional and operational rhythm of their teams.

For decades, USAID was one of the greatest tools America had to promote democratic values in Russia. The agency extended humanitarian assistance while fostering political reform, and in doing so endeared the United States to Russians even as it undercut the Kremlin's authoritarian ambitions. It was a supreme example of soft power: working "through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion," as the political scientist Joseph S. Nye Jr. defined the term.