Tag: United States Politics and Government

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…

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…

US Solar Panel Makers Try to Catch China With a Big Leap in Technology

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Producers of solar panels in the United States say they are on the cusp of a technological breakthrough that could upend the industry and even threaten China’s grip on it. The manufacturers are racing to develop new kinds of panels that can generate 25 percent more energy than most such devices available today. If they are successful, the advance will allow the world to meet the rapidly rising demand for electricity with less land and roof area. The new technology, known as tandem solar, involves adding second and third layers…

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…

Chinese Threat Requires a Broader Spying Mission, C.I.A. Deputy Director Says

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The United States is engaging in a broader range of espionage against China, including Chinese companies, to address the country’s status as both a military and an economic threat, the deputy C.I.A. director, Michael Ellis, said on Tuesday. During a rare public speaking appearance, Mr. Ellis said the nature of intelligence collection by the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies had evolved considerably since they were created during the Cold War to spy on the Soviet Union. Unlike past geopolitical rivals, China “poses a fundamentally different kind of threat to us…

The Heat on Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Grows

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Andrew here. Wowsers. Wall Street is buzzing about an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal by Stanley Druckenmiller, a billionaire investor. Druckenmiller criticized Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s bond buyback plan, calling it a mistake — and, worse, suggesting it’s a stab at manipulating the bond market. Remember that Druckenmiller more recently employed Kevin Warsh, now the Fed chairman, who has argued that the government should intervene less in markets, not more. Read more below. The risks of Bessent’s multifront war Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has spent much of August…

The Next China Shock Is Here

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This is an edited transcript of “The Ezra Klein Show.” You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts. The biggest economic story in the world right now is China’s growing dominance across advanced manufacturing sector after advanced manufacturing sector — from electric vehicles to batteries to solar panels to software like A.I. and open models, where they’ve become a world leader. What is happening here is very different than what we call the first China Shock, when China became a big exporter of things that were not…

Trump Gives Green Light to U.S. Companies to Aim Hacks at Cybercriminals

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The Trump administration is encouraging American companies to conduct their own cyberattacks against criminal hackers, a move that White House officials say will help address digital scourges like ransomware but that some former officials and security experts warn could lead to chaos. Under a national security memorandum that President Trump signed late Wednesday, select companies would work with the Justice and Homeland Security Departments to strike foreign cybercriminal groups with hacks under certain conditions. The attacks would allow both surveillance of the criminal networks and specific types of hacking operations…