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Zhou Bo is a retired senior colonel in the People’s Liberation Army and a senior fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy. His military career included roles in the Ministry of National Defence’s Foreign Affairs Office and as a defence attaché. Zhou is the author of the recent book Should the World Fear China?This interview first appeared in SCMP Plus. For other interviews in the Open Questions series, click here.With the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party still in power in Taiwan and intensifying US arms purchases, how viable is peaceful reunification at this stage? What specific “red lines”…

Chicken and egg? Cart before the horse? Six of one, half dozen of the other? After a while, you realize there isn’t a simple phrase to capture the linkages between alternative investments that cloud the landscape of money-making opportunities. What kind of alternative investments am I alluding to? They could be any number of things: Attenuated power supplies to meet the demand of data centers, including uranium The handful of quantum companies, all of which are thought to be able to disintermediate the need for massive regular compute, with all of its attenuated power needs, or those that can crack…

Earnings season is winding down as we kick off the last month of 2025. Despite many headwinds — persistent inflation, slowing global growth, a record 43-day U.S. government shutdown, and geopolitical conflicts — third-quarter results were largely positive. With 95% of S & P 500 companies in, 83% have outpaced earnings expectations, while 76% have outpaced revenue expectations. Earnings beats were led by technology, health care, and financials, while the revenue beats were led by consumer staples, health care, and technology. The stock market, on the other hand, remains volatile. We discussed how to approach such a tough tape in…

LONDON/MOSCOW: OPEC+ countries agreed to maintain group-wide oil output quotas for 2026 in a meeting on Sunday, and also agreed on a mechanism to assess members’ maximum oil production capacity, OPEC said in a statement. Eight OPEC+ countries, holding a separate meeting on Sunday, also have an agreement in principle to maintain a pause in their output hikes for the first quarter of 2026, an OPEC+ source and a person familiar with OPEC+ talks said earlier. The meeting of OPEC+, which pumps half of the world’s oil, comes during a fresh U.S. effort to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal, which…

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — African leaders pushed Sunday to have colonial-era crimes recognized, criminalized and addressed through reparations.At a conference in Algiers, diplomats and leaders convened to advance an African Union resolution passed at a meeting earlier this year calling for justice and reparations for victims of colonialism.In his opening speech, Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said Algeria’s experience under French rule underscored the need to seek compensation and reclaim stolen property.A legal framework, he added, would ensure restitution is seen as “neither a gift nor a favor.”“Africa is entitled to demand the official and explicit recognition of the crimes…

China is launching a second satellite constellation to monitor objects in orbit to help commercial operators lower collision risks and ease the country’s long reliance on foreign tracking data.When complete, the Xingyan – or Star Eye – space situational awareness constellation will have 156 satellites up and running to identify the orbits of other satellites and debris, detect unusual movements, and provide collision warnings and maneuver advice every two hours.Its developer, Xingtu Cekong, an Anhui-based spin-off of leading geospatial data company Zhongke Xingtu, said 12 satellites would be launched by 2027 and the full network in operation after 2028.The network…

Hidden in the frozen highlands of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau – often called the “Third Pole” – lies an unexpected trove of biological innovation: animal poop.Chinese scientists have discovered that the faeces of yaks, Tibetan sheep, antelope and other native herbivores harbour thousands of previously unknown microbial species, some of which could be game changers for biotechnology.They include novel strains that have the potential to degrade cellulose – used for paper, cardboard and clothing – and other strains that could help reduce methane emissions from livestock production.“Our results showed that animals living in harsh environments are promising sources for the discovery…

Hong Kong’s worst residential fire in history has cast a shadow over property sentiment, but the overall impact on the home market is likely to prove temporary because broader economic fundamentals will continue to drive longer-term trends, according to analysts.The devastating fire last week at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po left at least 146 people dead and 79 injured, including firefighters, with the status of around 150 residents still unclear.“Everyone is more cautious right now, and because of this incident, the market sentiment isn’t that great,” said Sammy Po, senior director at Midland Realty. “Viewing numbers in Tai Po…

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) — Pope Leo XIV doubled down Sunday on the Holy See’s insistence on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying in his first airborne news conference that it was the “only solution” that could guarantee justice for both sides.Leo made the comments as he flew from Istanbul to Beirut for the second and final leg of his maiden voyage as pope. Though Leo has been fielding journalists’ questions at informal gatherings at his country house, the brief encounter marked his first news conference as pope and followed the tradition of his predecessors of…

The drive by the Binhai New Area district comes days after a catastrophic high-rise blaze in Hong Kong claimed more than 120 lives.District officials attending a fire safety meeting on Saturday were shown footage and a preliminary report from the blaze in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district, which took firefighters more than 40 hours to bring under control. Over 1,000 queue to pay respects to Tai Po fire victimsOver 1,000 queue to pay respects to Tai Po fire victimsWhat was to become Hong Kong’s deadliest blaze in decades started on Wednesday afternoon. The flames spread quickly, engulfing seven of eight…