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This week is the last full trading week on Wall Street for the year, and it is packed with key economic and earnings reports. The data will help us sharpen our 2026 market outlook following a wild week for stocks that saw the S & P 500 close at a record high this past Thursday but finish the entire week lower. 1. First up, the economy : The U.S. government is still working its way through the data that was delayed due to the record-long, 43-day federal shutdown. As a result, the big item for investors will be Tuesday morning’s…

The odds seemed impossible: a shoestring Chinese start-up founded in 2023 with just 1 million yuan (US$142,000) taking on Elon Musk – tech legend, disrupter in space and CEO of Tesla – who is valued at half a trillion dollars.But in less than two years, EngineAI Robotics, led by CEO Zhao Tongyang, created the T800 – a robot that delivers Bruce Lee-style roundhouse kicks with the force of a small car – and, under the instruction of smiling engineers and scientists, tried it first on the boss himself.That is why when Musk’s Optimus recently “set a personal record” by jogging…

A proposal to invite Taiwan to next year’s US-led Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) military exercises has been removed from defence policy legislation progressing through Congress, raising concerns in Taipei that Washington’s political calculus may be shifting.Some analysts have warned that the removal of language approved by the US Senate in the 2026 National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) could even pave the way for Beijing’s return to the world’s largest naval exercise.For the first time, the version of the defence policy bill for the next financial year passed by the Senate in October “strongly encouraged” inviting Taiwan’s navy to take…

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski arrived for an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, direct from a dentist appointment. The 63-year-old veteran human rights advocate was experiencing a return to daily life after more than four years behind bars in Belarus. He was suddenly released on Saturday. Medical assistance in the penal colony where he served his 10-year sentence was very limited, he said in his first sit-down interview after release. There was only one option of treating dental problems behind bars — pulling teeth out, he said. Bialiatski…

China has set a deadline for local governments to settle the outstanding payments they owe to companies, calling it essential for improving the country’s business environment amid an economic slowdown.All arrears less than 500,000 yuan (US$70,870) must be cleared by the end of the year, said Xiao Weiming, deputy secretary general of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner.“The biggest step in improving the business environment right now is clearing the outstanding debts owed by local governments,” he said at the 2025–2026 China Economic Annual Conference, held in Beijing on Saturday by the China Centre for…

When I woke up with a sore throat and fever in Beijing earlier this month, the last thing I wanted to do was go to a hospital.Even though the nearest public facility is just a 15-minute walk from my flat, I didn’t have the energy to leave my bed, let alone endure the long queues, crowds and cumbersome procedures that come with a hospital visit. In fact, I suspected I had contracted the virus that was causing my symptoms from a trip to that very hospital four days earlier, as it was the only crowded place I visited that week.Following…

Just days after Chinese ambassador Yang Renhuo met Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo to donate airport security inspection equipment, the West African nation was hit by a military coup that ousted Embalo.The November 26 coup marked yet another military takeover along Africa’s “coup belt”, adding Guinea-Bissau to nations like Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Niger and Gabon that had recently seen leaders toppled.The political turmoil has raised the stakes for China’s vast economic interests in the region, including a 50-year mineral extraction agreement in Guinea-Bissau and the security of its vital US$4.5 billion Niger-Benin oil pipeline.Shortly after the Guinea-Bissau coup, which…

Pakistan’s textile and apparel sector is approaching a critical point, with widespread layoffs and factory closures looming due to rising costs and weakening export momentum, the Pakistan Textile Council (PTC) Chairman Fawad Anwar has warned. According to a press release, textile and apparel exports reached $7.84 billion during July-November FY26, up 2.8% from the same period last year. However, Anwar said headline growth masks underlying stress across key segments of the industry. Exports in November 2025 declined to $1.43 billion, down 2.7% year-on-year and 11.7% compared to October, reflecting rising costs that exporters are unable to pass on to buyers.…

A plunder complaint filed against Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has reopened scrutiny of her use of “confidential funds” and opened a new legal front in a political stand-off that could shape the early dynamics of the 2028 presidential race.A highly placed source, who told This Week in Asia about the complaint a week before it was filed, said the move was intended to blunt Duterte-Carpio’s prospects in the 2028 presidential election by tying her down in a prolonged anti-corruption investigation that could force sustained scrutiny of her finances, even without a conviction.The complaint, submitted on Friday to the Office of…

China will expand its national healthcare insurance programme next year to fully cover all out-of-pocket expenses related to childbirth, according to state media reports.It is the country’s latest bid to lift birth rates and avert a looming demographic crisis that threatens to undermine long-term growth prospects.The pledge to widen the medical insurance coverage was unveiled at a national healthcare security conference in Beijing on Saturday, state news agency Xinhua reported.According to a work report delivered by National Healthcare Security Administration director Zhang Ke, the plan will be the centrepiece of a wider fertility initiative aimed at reducing the financial burden…