How China Built a Network of Ports Encircling the Globe
December 1st, 2025
Via Bloomberg, a look at how – with shipping outposts on six continents – Beijing has cemented its trade dominance. That some could be used by its navy has other nations worried. Illustration: Christian Capestany China has invested tens of billions of dollars in building or investing in a global network of commercial ports on […]
Read more »After Gold and Diamonds, Russia Turns to Africa’s Trove of Fish
November 28th, 2025
Via Bloomberg, a report on how Russia is competing for influence – and money – in diverse, yet depleted waters: The Great African Expedition launched from the Baltic port of Kaliningrad in August 2024. An orchestra played “When the Saints Go Marching In” and a priest blessed the crews with holy water. Officials rang a […]
Read more »Great Game Intensifies for Myanmar’s Kachin Rare Earths
November 28th, 2025
Via the Asia Times, a look at how US-India cooperation in REE refining could give Kachin rebels controlling mines a strategic alternative to China In the global contest over critical minerals, Myanmar has emerged as an unlikely pivot. Rare earth elements (REE)—dysprosium, terbium, and others indispensable for magnets in wind turbines, electric vehicles, and advanced […]
Read more »Angola’s Biggest Bank Accelerates Regional Expansion With DRC In Focus
November 25th, 2025
Via The Africa Report, a look at Banco Angolano de Investimentos’s plans to accelerate regional expansion: Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) plans to raise the share of loans to the private sector to about 40% as it backs Angola’s push to diversify the economy away from oil and gas. The timing is favourable. Angola is hosting […]
Read more »How China Is Using Brazil to Reshape Power in the Americas
November 21st, 2025
Via The Diplomat, commentary on how China is entrenching itself in the Brazilian industrial base and consumer economy, with implications for Chinese influence across the continent: China’s increasing economic footprint in Brazil, Latin America’s largest economy, is redefining the region’s balance of power. Once primarily a trading partner, China is now entrenching itself in the […]
Read more »Azerbaijan: A Strategic Addition to the C5
November 21st, 2025
Via The Frontier Post, a report on Azerbaijan: At a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, last Sunday, the leaders of the five Central Asian states — Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — made an important decision that could have geopolitical ramifications for Eurasia. At the Seventh Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.