Tag: Trump, Donald J

What Trump’s Midterm Defeat Means for Iran and Oil Prices

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Global leaders offered little public sympathy to President Trump after his party was blown out in the midterm elections, even as they wondered what the result might mean for trade, energy and wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mr. Trump’s enemies abroad — and many of his more estranged frenemies, as well — could not hide their glee on Wednesday morning after Democrats seized the House and Senate. There were celebrations in Iran and China, in Spain and South Africa, and from some European officials in Brussels. From many…

China’s Message to Its Rivals: You Need What We Make

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They are among the biggest machines in the world: steel cylinders, some as long as a football field, armed with rotating discs that can chew through rock to clear the way for roads and railways. Known as tunnel-boring machines, they are made by only a handful of companies, mostly in factories in China. India uses them to dig tunnels, including in the Himalayas, to improve its ability to send troops to defend its contested border with China. But starting this month, Beijing is likely to be able to control whether…

The Big Change Coming in U.S.-China Relations in the Age of A.I.

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At Beijing Capital International Airport, it is now required after landing to send carry-on bags through a scanner before leaving the arrivals building. As I approached the scanner belt with my bags, though, I saw a sign that I had never encountered before: Any passenger carrying a drone has to remove and declare it. A Chinese security officer pointed directly to the sign to confirm that I had no drones in my bag. I shook my head no. I don’t usually travel with a drone. That sign was not the…

President Trump Was Briefed on a Chinese Spy Plot. He Took No Action.

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new video loaded: President Trump Was Briefed on a Chinese Spy Plot. He Took No Action. <img src="https://www.chinastrategy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/11/president-trump-was-briefed-on-a-chinese-spy-plot-he-took-no-action.png" data-testid="betamax-poster" sizes="(width Our trade and international economics reporter, Ana Swanson, unravels how a tech executive in Singapore aided in steering banned Nvidia advanced A.I. chips to China and provided information to the Chinese government. When President Trump was briefed on this, and the knowledge that this executive was in close contact with the Nvidia chief executive, Jensen Huang, he did nothing about it. By Ana Swanson, Nour Idriss, Whitney Shefte, Pierre Kattar…

America Is in Decline, and Trump Is Leading the Fall

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Many of President Trump’s policies have brought changes to the international order that will last long after his second term ends. On this episode of “The Opinions,” the columnist Lydia Polgreen speaks with the political scientist Rahmane Idrissa and the “Sinica Podcast” host Kaiser Kuo about how the United States and China view global leadership and what their evolving positions mean for smaller nations. Below is a transcript of an episode of “The Opinions.” We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do…

Lethality and Testosterone Will Get Us Only So Far

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Enemy drones over Romania. Wayward missiles in Poland. Sabotage in Germany. Every week brings some new Russian provocation as President Vladimir Putin steps up his efforts to divide Europe and undermine support for Ukraine. As Western militaries scramble to respond, the prospect of the war spilling over into NATO territory rises. The problem of escalating instability, unfortunately, is not confined to Europe’s eastern frontier. The danger of war between America’s autocratic adversaries and our democratic allies is rising around the world for one simple, troubling reason: The enemies of liberal…

Russia’s Silence on Possible Plague Outbreak Stokes Fears of a Cover-Up

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As rumors swirled this week that a woman working in a Siberian lab may have died of the plague, news programs on Russian state television paid scant attention. The authorities in Moscow released little information. Faced with this potential new threat, the Kremlin seems to be resorting to a familiar playbook: avoiding bad news. The lack of information has caused unease around the world, particularly given the memory of China’s effort to withhold information about Covid-19. The Kremlin has a history of hiding bad news In Russia, federal officials are…

America’s Naval Power Is Waning. That Could Change.

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The United States might be losing another war — one that could define the country’s security into the next century. Military and commercial power are intertwined. Maritime power, in particular, has always played a crucial part in establishing and maintaining commercial power. America is learning this lesson the hard way. For hundreds of years, the countries that have ruled the waves have ruled the world, as the 19th-century American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan put it. In an age of drones, we can be forgiven for thinking this time has…

Oil Is Flowing From the Persian Gulf, but Prices Remain High. Why?

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More oil is flowing from the Middle East than at any point since the start of the war with Iran, yet crude still costs almost $100 a barrel, much more than at other times when supplies were more constrained. That seeming conundrum can partly be explained by a change in traders’ views about how long the conflict is going to last. Optimism that an enduring peace deal might be around the corner has given way to concern that hostilities could restart. In the meantime, the United States and other countries…

A Way Out of the A.I. Arms Race?

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Over the course of two harrowing weeks in October 1962, the world came within an eyelash of nuclear Armageddon. The United States and the Soviet Union were jockeying desperately for advantage during the Cold War arms race. After the United States stationed intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Italy and Turkey, the Soviets, fearing a first strike, sought to station their own nuclear weapons in Cuba. The tense two-week standoff that ensued, the Cuban Missile Crisis, nearly escalated into nuclear war. But it didn’t. Not only did the parties step back from…