Day: February 7, 2026

Taiwan wants to train an effective reserve force. Will live-fire drills do the job?

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Taiwan is moving to plug one-year conscripts directly into frontline combined-arms operations, mandating joint live-fire training with troops across all services to bolster resilience against a potential attack from Beijing. The Taiwanese cabinet’s latest policy report states that, starting this year, conscripts will be organised into full battalion-level units and attached to combined-arms brigades taking part in the high-intensity Lien Yung three-service live-fire exercises. Advertisement Conscripts will experience realistic battlefield conditions alongside professional soldiers equipped with advanced weapons in the drills, which integrate air force strike aircraft, army attack helicopters,…

US and India reach interim trade deal

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Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. The US and India said they had reached a framework for an interim trade agreement, ending a months-long impasse between Narendra Modi’s government and Donald Trump’s administration. The confirmation of the agreement came days after Trump spoke to Modi and said India had agreed to stop buying Russian oil, which had prompted his administration to impose a 50 per cent tariff on imports from India. India will open its market…

China overturns death sentence of Canadian in sign of diplomatic thaw

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China has overturned the death sentence of Canadian Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, a Canadian official said on Friday, in a possible sign of a diplomatic thaw as prime minister Mark Carney seeks to boost trade ties with Beijing. Schellenberg’s lawyer Zhang Dongshuo, reached in Beijing on Saturday, confirmed the decision was announced on Friday by China’s highest court. Schellenberg was detained on drug charges in 2014 before China-Canada ties nosedived after the 2018 arrest in Vancouver of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou. That arrest infuriated Beijing, which detained two Canadians…

The three-way race for Brazil’s rare earths heats up

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A global race for Brazil’s vast deposits of rare earths is heating up, with the US, China and EU all vying for access to the minerals that are vital for an array of 21st-century technologies. The Latin American nation’s reserves of the metals, the second-largest in the world, are in the crosshairs of both Washington and Brussels as they try to reduce dependence on China, the dominant producer which has a chokehold on supplies. The EU is in talks to reach an agreement with Brazil for joint investments into critical…