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Wall Street heads into what’s expected to be a slow week — featuring the last three days of 2025 and the first trading day of 2026. The market will be closed Thursday for New Year’s Day. While there are no major earnings scheduled this week, there are three macroeconomic updates that we will be watching. 1. Housing : November pending home sales data is out on Monday morning. The sluggish real estate market has been a key concern in 2025 and will remain so in 2026. The stubbornly high cost of shelter, which makes up about a third of inflation…

Ivan Krastev is a Bulgarian political scientist best known for his work on Europe’s democratic crisis, the psychology of post-communist societies and the political legacy of 1989. He is chair of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna and the author of several influential books on European politics.In this Open Questions interview, Krastev reflects on Europe’s loss of bearings in a faster, harsher world, the fading of the post-Cold War transatlantic order and the psychological shock of a US that no longer treats Europe as a priority.This interview first…

Of all the warplanes in China’s rapidly growing air arsenal, it was an older model that sent shock waves across the region earlier this month.A rare stand-off between Chinese and Japanese fighter jets took place near the Miyako Strait northeast of Taiwan. The incident brought the Shenyang J-15 carrier-based fighter jet, which has been in service for more than a decade, back into the spotlight.Japan said J-15 fighter jets, launched from the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning, twice engaged their fire control radars to lock on to its F-15 fighter jets on December 6, the second time for about half an…

The stock market broke records during the holiday-shortened trading week. The S & P 500 hit an all-time intraday high Friday but closed slightly lower. Nevertheless, the index rose 1.4% last week, padding an almost 18% year to date advance. Economic data last week lifted investor spirits, with weekly jobless claims, as well as third-quarter GDP and inflation data, painting a positive view of the economy. Last week’s market run also came during the start of the historically strong period for stocks known as the Santa Claus rally , which spans the last five trading sessions of the year through…

Saudi Arabia has pledged to boost investments in America to nearly US$1 trillion, but according to analysts Riyadh could struggle to meet that target.Rather, they said the pledge – announced when Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visited Washington last month – was more about the “political display” than a binding commitment.By comparison, China and Saudi Arabia signed commercial deals worth about US$30 billion when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Riyadh in 2022.China and Saudi Arabia signed about US$30 billion worth of deals when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Riyadh in 2022. Photo: AFPNew business deals signed between Riyadh and Washington…

Three more top-ranking Chinese officers have been expelled from the national legislature, becoming the latest to fall foul of an anti-corruption campaign sweeping through the military.The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress said on Saturday that it had expelled Wang Renhua, head of the Central Military Commission’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee; Zhang Hongbing, political commissar of the People’s Armed Police (PAP); and Wang Peng, director of the CMC’s training department.All three remain full members of the Central Committee, the Communist Party’s top decision-making body.The announcement confirms speculation about the fate of the generals. The men have been missing…

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s protesting university students on Sunday collected signatures throughout the country for their request for an early parliamentary election that they hope would oust the autocratic government of President Aleksandar Vucic from office.Braving freezing weather, the students set up nearly 500 stands in dozens of cities, towns and villages in the Balkan country for residents to sign the election demand, which isn’t a formal petition. Students have said that Sunday’s action was meant to put further pressure on Vucic and as a test of support. Young protesters have been at the forefront of a nationwide movement…

In the heart of Algeria’s Sahara Desert, Chinese state-owned giant China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) has completed laying track on the PK330 Bridge, a final and critical link in a new railway designed to unlock the nation’s mineral wealth.It was the “most technically demanding railway engineering feat ever undertaken in North Africa”, CRCC said on December 10. 16:09How China is reshaping its economic ties with AfricaHow China is reshaping its economic ties with AfricaThe ore will be processed at newly established industrial complexes in the region and taken to Mediterranean ports. The bridge, which is part of Beijing’s Belt and…

As the Philippines wraps up a tumultuous year punctuated by colourful barbs thrown across warring political houses, an ongoing corruption scandal surrounding flood control projects threatens to derail President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr’s administration.Externally, Manila has been embroiled all year in a long-standing territorial row with Beijing in the South China Sea that shows no signs of waning, while also gearing up for the hot seat as next year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.We recap below the headlines for the Philippines in 2025:Philippine coastguard personnel treat wounded fishermen inside their vessel in the disputed South China Sea on…

PARIS (AP) — Brigitte Bardot felt each pop of the flashbulb like the impact of a high-powered rifle bullet. And so it was, she said, that years of implacable hounding by the world’s paparazzi turned a woman idolized as a sultry sex kitten into a militant animal rights crusader.Bardot, who died Sunday at age 91, was just 22 when she rocketed to international fame with the 1956 film sensation “And God Created Woman,” a cinematic ode to her hourglass figure, sultry pout and tousled blond mane.Bardot would spend another decade and a half in the limelight — and among the…