Biden’s Blue Dot seeks to derail China’s Belt and Road

By Richard Javad Heydarian
Amid an escalating new Cold War, the Biden administration is mobilizing allies and partners to slow China’s technological strides and arrest its rising global influence. In particular, the US has doubled down on reviving the so-called Blue Dot Network, a long-dormant initiative launched by the previous Trump administration to counter Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Egypt in ascendency amid Middle East reset

By Jonathan Gorvett
As a key player in the recent Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire and with its diplomats more active than they have been in years, Egypt is back as a major influencer in Middle Eastern affairs. From Gaza to Libya, the Eastern Mediterranean to the Horn of Africa, Cairo is now key in a host of contentious disputes that will make the difference between regional war and peace.

G7: Desperately seeking relevancy

Subscribe to AT+ premium to read Pepe Escobar’s take on the upcoming G7 meeting in Cornwall. A Sinophobic crusade pursued by the grouping will have few if any takers, he says, due to members' rising dependence on Chinese goods and markets. What matters is the G20.

Huawei’s HarmonyOS aims at US tech dominance

By David P. Goldman
Huawei’s new Harmony operating system isn’t just a substitute for Google’s Android software for smartphones, industry experts say, but an ambitious effort to unify handsets and laptops with the internet of things and big data analysis. The potential pushes the envelope of imagination.

The Fed is the culprit in commodity inflation

By David P. Goldman
Commodity prices and real world trade volume tend to move in lockstep. Something different happened during the past year, when non-fuel commodity prices rose much farther than the modest recovery in world trade volume would have indicated, the result of the Federal Reserve’s tsunami of a monetary stimulus.

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China, Russia stay the course on jumbo jet dream

By Frank Chen
China and Russia have recommitted to keep their joint CR929 wide-body airliner program afloat, with significant progress recently being made in both countries on a stop-and-start US$10 billion venture that aims ultimately to compete with Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, but there's still a long haul ahead before the jumbo plane gets off the ground.

HK vaccination rate boosted by lucky draw frenzy

By Jeff Pao
Prizes including a one-bedroom luxury apartment, shopping vouchers and gold could be enough to help people overcome their hesitation and get Covid-19 shots in Hong Kong. Property developers and charity foundations have offered prizes worth a total of HK$120 million (US$15.4 million) to encourage people in the territory to get vaccinated.

Small mod nuke reactors fuel new waste debate

By Scott Forester
There’s an argument that with all the interest in “advanced” nuclear reactors as a reliable 24/7 replacement for coal and oil-fired electrical power generation, enthusiasts are overlooking the elephant in the room: nuclear waste with a close-to-forever radioactive half-life that must, somehow, be stored safely for centuries.

Indonesia tycoon’s name is mud over unpaid disaster dues

By John McBeth
Fifteen years since a flood of toxic mud and gas spewing out of a breached natural gas well cut road links and forced the mass evacuation of East Java villagers, firms controlled by coal tycoon Aburizal Bakrie have still to pay at least US$100 million in compensation for causing the disaster.

Huawei swerving from smartphones to smart cars

By Frank Chen
Riding a wave of patriotism and driven by government support, Chinese tech giant Huawei has wheeled out plans to help steer the nation’s accelerating smart car industry, with the firm continuing to drop hints it will diversify away from its Western sanctions-hit telecom business and towards automotives.