Courtesy of The Diplomat, an article on North Korea’s plans to expand its use of renewable energy: Pyongyang has signaled an increased interest in using renewable energy to address its national energy crisis and economic challenges, which North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blames mostly on U.S. and U.N. sanctions. However, North Korea has only used its nuclear […]
Read more »Via Asia Times, a report on ExxonMobil’s recommitment to it $20 billion ‘Blue Whale’ gas project despite tacit threats from Beijing: Vietnam’s long-delayed Blue Whale offshore gas development project may be closer to pumping after operator and majority owner ExxonMobil said last week it was working on a final development plan for the field, which sits […]
Read more »Via the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a report on how China wrested control of the Congo’s critical minerals: China’s system of bankrolling its state companies may be entrenching great inefficiency in its economy but has delivered it unchallenged dominance in the critical minerals required for advanced technologies. Separate investigations by the New York Times and Bloomberg released in recent […]
Read more »Via Bloomberg, a look at how global investors are pouring money into Pakistan’s budding tech sector: The startup scene in the world’s fifth-largest nation is having a breakout year. More money has flowed into Pakistan’s nascent technology sector during 2021 than in the previous six years combined, with investors from the U.S., Singapore and the United […]
Read more »Via Reuters, an article on China’s decreased appetite for BRI financing in Africa: Deep in Kenya’s Great Rift Valley, members of the National Youth Service tirelessly swing machetes to clear dense shrubs obscuring railway tracks more than a century old. It’s a distinctly low-tech phase for China’s Belt and Road drive in Africa to create […]
Read more »Via National Interest, commentary on China’s long game in improving relations with Syria and the Middle East as a whole: As Damascus’ forces gradually recover more territory, with Idlib province being the last rebel stronghold, Syria is now entering a “postwar” phase. Yet while Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s forces have prevailed on the battlefield, his victory has […]
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