Showing 31 - 40 of 56
Can US-China relations be saved?
News, Peter Apps, Published on 21/11/2018
» At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting on Saturday afternoon, Chinese diplomats arrived unexpectedly at the Foreign Ministry of host Papua New Guinea. Angry at Papua New Guinea's support for American wording in the meeting's final communiqué, they only left after police were called, Australian and other media reported.
Leaders must adapt to Trump's post-midterm world
News, Peter Apps, Published on 14/11/2018
» For Donald Trump's first foreign trip since Americans voted in the midterm elections, the bleak weather in Paris appears to have matched the diplomatic mood. The US president seemed subdued during his visit to mark the centenary of the truce that ended World War I, and insulted many Europeans when rain and traffic were cited as the reason for cancelling one of his visits to an American war cemetery.
Even an imperfect UN is still the world's best hope
News, Peter Apps, Published on 27/09/2018
» Four years after World War II, former British prime minister Winston Churchill was asked to reflect on what would have prevented the conflict. The greatest mistake after World War I, he said, was not to properly resource the League of Nations, the international forum of countries created in 1919. Doing so "would have saved us all".
China, Russia's war game obsession
News, Peter Apps, Published on 31/08/2018
» As the West obsesses over Donald Trump's legal and political challenges, Brexit and a host of other domestic crises, Chinese troops will join their Russian counterparts for Moscow's largest military exercises in more than three decades.
The messy meaning of the Manafort and Cohen cases
News, Peter Apps, Published on 24/08/2018
» The mixed verdict in the trial of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump's former campaign manager, along with the guilty plea on campaign finance violations by the US president's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, is a sign of just how messy -- and perhaps inconclusive -- Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election will be. But Tuesday's events also point to broader destabilisation in US politics.
Taliban flexes muscles as long war enters new phase
News, Peter Apps, Published on 17/08/2018
» On the streets of the city of Ghazni this week, Afghan troops and Taliban fighters battled for the future of Afghanistan.
China's plans to reshape the world
News, Peter Apps, Published on 10/08/2018
» Ten years ago on Wednesday, the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics showcased a fast-growing, economically powerful China with unmistakable ambitions to be a major global player. Just a few days ago, the Chinese authorities demolished the studio of artist Ai Weiwei, designer of the Games' iconic "bird's nest" stadium and now an exiled dissident in Germany.
The unsettling behaviour of 'The Donald' at summits
News, Peter Apps, Published on 18/07/2018
» In the end, Donald Trump's post-summit press conference with Vladimir Putin produced fewer surprises than many feared. In contrast to the US president's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, there was no announcement to blindside regional allies such as a suspension of military exercises. Like the first part of Mr Trump's trip to Europe, however, the outcome of the Helsinki meeting will outrage his critics, play well with his domestic political base and unsettle European nations. Indeed, that may well have been its purpose.
What G7 can still offer the world
News, Peter Apps, Published on 08/06/2018
» Meetings of the G8 group comprising the world's richest nations used to be an exercise in well-choreographed consensus. The largely technocratic, centrist leadership of major countries would discuss how to tweak the global economy, help those they believed were being left behind and generally congratulate each other on their overlapping progressive and largely democratic values.
Muslim minority faces modern Orwellian nightmare
News, Peter Apps, Published on 17/05/2018
» In China's northwest Xinjiang province, the predominantly Muslim Uighur minority have nowhere to hide. Facial recognition software reportedly alerts authorities if targeted individuals stray more than 300 metres from their homes and workplaces. Residents face arrest if they fail to download smartphone software that allows them to be tracked, according to social media users. Simply wishing to travel outside China can be cause for arrest, with Beijing detaining family members and using its political clout to force extradition of those abroad.