Month: April 2026

This year’s El Nino could increase the global demand for fossil fuels and worsen the price rises caused by the Iran crisis, Chinese government scientists have said. The climate phenomenon happens every two to seven years and causes an increase in average global temperatures. A strong El Nino can bring either droughts or torrential rains and flooding, both of which may force hydropower stations to reduce their output or shut down entirely – increasing the need for other power sources, including oil and gas. Advertisement “El Nino could hit hydropower-dependent…

Sven Biscop is a Belgian political scientist and strategist specialising in the foreign affairs and security of the EU and its relations with great powers. He is a director at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels and a professor at Ghent University. He is also a senior research fellow at Renmin University in Beijing, where he teaches in the summer. Biscop is the author of many books, including 2024’s This Is Not a New World Order: Europe Rediscovers Geopolitics, from Ukraine to Taiwan. His voice is one…

According to the PLA Eastern Theatre Command, the Japanese destroyer JS Ikazuchi spent 14 hours navigating the sensitive waterway on Friday, the anniversary of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki or Treaty of Maguan, an unequal treaty that forced the then-ruling Qing dynasty administration to cede Taiwan to Japanese colonial rule. In a commentary on Saturday, the military mouthpiece PLA Daily accused Tokyo of “harming the feelings of the Chinese people” by timing the transit to coincide with the anniversary. Advertisement “This is not just a ‘grey zone’ tactic; it is…

Janusz Pawliszyn, the 71-year-old recipient of the Chemical Institute of Canada’s highest honour and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has joined Guangzhou’s Sun Yat-sen University, the institution announced on April 9. Pawliszyn has supervised more than 110 master’s and doctoral students as well as nearly 200 postdoctoral students and visiting scholars, many of them from China. Ouyang Gangfeng was one of them. From 2004 to 2005, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Pawliszyn’s laboratory. Advertisement He is now a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry and…

China has started work on a project to reduce natural gas consumption by blending it with hydrogen that will provide energy to 100,000 households. The project in Weifang in the eastern province of Shandong is first to be carried out on such a scale and forms part of the country’s green energy push, an effort that is likely to gain further momentum in the wake of the current global energy crisis. It uses equipment capable of handling up to 30,000 cubic metres (1 million cubic feet) of hydrogen-blended gas, allowing…

Since America launched its “major combat operation” against Iran, several Nato allies have distanced themselves from Washington. Now America also risks losing ground in strategically important Southeast Asia to China. Could it face an erosion of influence similar to that suffered by Russia in Central Asia as a result of its “special military operation” in Ukraine? Soon after US President Donald Trump launched massive air and missile strikes on Iran on February 28, it became clear Washington could not count on the support of its Western partners. One by one,…

A Chinese military magazine has suggested that if Taiwan sends a swarm of uncrewed combat boats across the strait – a strategy inspired by Ukraine – Beijing could counter with its GJ-21 stealth attack drones. According to a commentary in Defence Review, the GJ-21 has long endurance and high manoeuvrability, which would give it a critical advantage against a “game changing” swarm attack by unmanned surface vessels. The GJ-21 – a naval variant of the GJ-11 Sharp Sword – is the world’s first and only operational ship-based stealth combat drone.…