Leaked documents published by OCCRP allege Harita Group planned or approved at least $389,000 in payments to officials, clerics and military projects tied to its Obi nickel operations. Harita itself was never charged, and the authors urge a corporate investigation and a review of Lygend's role.
— via Asia Times, Yeta Purnama and Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
Satellite imagery shows Iran repairing its mountain-carved Eagle 44 airbase after repeated US-Israeli strikes. The article argues hardened underground shelters let weaker air forces survive an opening bombardment, offering a model for Taiwan facing China and for the Korean Peninsula.
— via Asia Times, Gabriel Honrada
Chinese equities have shed about $2.4 trillion since May and entered bear-market territory, even as Chinese AI labs impress. The article attributes the gap to weak household confidence, an index light on AI hardware, regulatory uncertainty, and slow structural reform despite state-backed support.
— via Asia Times, William Pesek
Xi Jinping's four principles for resolving African conflicts, endorsed by Togo's president, are tested against the Sahel, where rival jihadist groups JNIM and ISSP fight each other rather than states. China's deep economic ties and exposed citizens in Mali and Niger complicate its stance on sovereignty and peace.
— via Asia Times, Goktug Calıskan
With China holding back rare earth refining technology and technicians, the US is funding private refiners to develop new separation methods rather than copy Chinese ones, including chromatography and electrochemical approaches. Japan faces a yttrium shortage as export curbs bite.
— via Asia Times, Jeff Pao
An opinion piece argues that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's planned food sales-tax cut, costing roughly 5 trillion yen a year, must come with a credible funding plan. Japan's debt is already well over twice its economy, so vague assurances risk higher bond yields, costlier mortgages and pricier defense and growth spending.
— via Asia Times, Nigel Green
The Ban Keun runway in Laos measures about 2,000 meters, long enough for most Chinese fighters but well short of the roughly 3,000 meters an H-6 bomber needs, and Reuters counted only eight K-8 light attack jets there. Cambodia's Ream base, meanwhile, has hosted Japanese, Vietnamese and US ships, which undercuts the story of a Chinese ring around Vietnam.
— via Asia Times, Sereysovathana Mogn
Putin reportedly floated a Russia-China-US summit on the sidelines of APEC in Shenzhen, and Trump says he'll attend if Xi wants it. The case for bringing Beijing into Ukraine talks is realist, but the geometry puts Xi, not Washington, at the pivot Kissinger once held.
— via Asia Times, Leon Hadar
The 18-page agreement lets the US buy 20% of the venture's oil at $30 a barrel, but the price leaves out the cost of the blending materials Venezuela's thick crude needs to flow. The text also gives a Venezuelan oligarch, Alejandro Betancourt, who has faced money-laundering investigations in three countries, control of the company's leadership, while Trump's "next century" claim rests on purchasing rights that expire in half that time.
— via Asia Times, Sebastian Rotella, Cate Brown, and Aaron C. Davis
Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the suspected plot against RAF Fairford was "almost certainly" directed by Iran, and the case is still under investigation. Tehran has increasingly hired local criminal networks to do its surveillance and killings abroad, including a 2015 murder in the Netherlands.
— via Asia Times, Ardavan Khoshnood
Bangladesh imports about 92% of the 7.2 million tons of petroleum it uses each year, and its only state refinery covers roughly a fifth of demand. Saudi Aramco sent delegations three times between 2016 and 2018 to discuss a refinery, but according to the Saudi ambassador they got little attention and hit bureaucratic walls.
— via Asia Times, Md. Abu Saim
A Washington donor network co-founded by JD Vance drew up a confidential proposal for Flávio Bolsonaro: a Technology Council of 23 business leaders, 19 of them foreign, to advise his campaign. Documents obtained by Intercept Brasil came out days before a first round he won by just over 2.2 million votes, with the runoff polling as a virtual tie.
— via Asia Times, Filipe Mendonca
Saudi Arabia executed two Bangladeshis on October 14 for what it called immoral acts inside a Mecca mosque, and Dhaka says it got no advance notice. Its response has been to reassure Riyadh that relations are unaffected, while basic questions about lawyers, interpreters and appeals remain unanswered.
— via Asia Times, Faisal Mahmud
Japan, Taiwan and South Korea could get Canadian oil to the Pacific without crossing a vulnerable choke point if they back the Pacific Link pipeline, and retrofitting refinery cokers to take oil sands crude would take about four to five years. South Korean refineries can already take Canadian crude with little or no retrofitting, though the economics remain a hurdle.
— via Atlantic Council, Joseph Webster
Seoul's passive response to a DMZ landmine blast and the return of North Korean POWs from Ukraine has irritated moderates as well as conservatives, but the author argues restraint has virtually no chance of improving inter-Korean ties. Pyongyang now has Chinese and Russian backing and has shut its doors, so the conditions that made the Sunshine Policy work are gone.
— via Asia Times, Andrei Lankov
Senate Democrats say the Pentagon is hiding what Iran's strikes on US bases cost, and CENTCOM's $43.6 billion war tally leaves that damage out. The estimate is classified, lawmakers have seen it, and they're demanding Adm. Brad Cooper release it.
— via Asia Times, Stephen Prager
Starshield terminals on platforms moving faster than about 100 mph (161 km/h) were reportedly restricted, according to Ukrainian officials and reporting citing US and Western sources. It doesn't black out Ukraine's military, but it cuts the connectivity that fast drones and interceptors depend on, and personnel described cancelled missions and dropped connections.
— via Asia Times, Steve Uhlig
South Korea's tax take is running about $47bn above budget this year, and Taiwan is proposing roughly $310 cash handouts to every citizen with effectively no net new borrowing. While Washington and Paris fight deficits, the author argues markets still price Seoul and Taipei as if they shared those troubles.
— via Asia Times, Gary Pinge
MSCI may demote Indonesian stocks to frontier status, or to a standalone category below it, while the rupiah is down 8.2% this year, the worst in Asia. The author argues the slide and the bourse's steepest drop since the late 1990s trace back to Prabowo's economic team, not just to MSCI.
— via Asia Times, William Pesek
China wants to ban exports of the production technology behind perovskite and tandem solar cells, the same cells seen as a leading option for satellites, just as Elon Musk plans to build 100 gigawatts of US solar capacity a year. The cells themselves could still be exported; comments on the 40-technology proposal are open until November 15.
— via Asia Times, Jeff Pao
