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Nearly ten years after the Philippines’ “war on drugs” began, it is now defined by a striking contradiction. Former president Rodrigo Duterte is on trial before the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity. Yet, according to rights monitors, drug-related killings linked to police operations are still being recorded across the country in 2026 under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.   The result is a ra...

Defense deals are not just about weapons and soldiers. Today, they are powerful political statements.   Countries use them to show strength, build alliances, and shape global influence. These agreements are turning into tools that can shift the balance of power across regions.   Philippines and Its North American Friends One of the biggest deals making noise right now is the Enhance Defense Cooperation Agreement between the Philipp...

Vietnam has entered a new political phase with little noise and even less debate. At the Communist Party Congress in January 2026, To Lam secured another five years as the country’s top leader in a process so smooth it revealed how tightly power is now held at the center.   A former security chief, Lam already occupies the most powerful position in Vietnam’s system. If he also assumes the presidency, as many expect, two of the ...

China rules the rare earth market because it was willing to take on the pollution that others refused. For years, Western countries enjoyed clean energy dreams powered by Chinese processing plants that quietly handled the toxic side of the green transition. Now the world is scrambling to fix a problem it helped create.   How China Took Over In the 1980s, the United States supplied most of the world’s rare earths from the Mountain Pa...

A burst of online claims has pushed the Indonesia-Malaysia border dispute back into public debate in 2026, with rumors suggesting that thousands of hectares of land near Sabah and North Kalimantan were “handed over” in a secret deal. At the center of the debate are three villages in Indonesia’s Nunukan district and claims involving 5,207 hectares of land.   Leaders in both Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta have moved quickly to ca...