South Africa’s state-owned energy monopoly Eskom has been accused of driving the country into a persistent energy crisis. Scheduled blackouts labeled as ‘load shedding’ and deepening debt have troubled South Africa’s politics, economy, and citizens...

Raytheon Corporation has agreed to merge with United Technologies Corporation to form a new company worth over $100 billion in the aerospace and defense industry’s biggest corporate merger. The new company, named Raytheon Technologies Corporation, will...

On May 15, 2019, the EU attempted to renew cooperative efforts with Central Asian countries when it published its New Central Asia Strategy, an updated version of a partnership policy with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan that was first initiated in 2007. The new cooperation strategy highlights...

New polls indicate that the policies of Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro, may be leading the country to a more violent future. The militarization of the country's police and greater access to firearms could soon exacerbate Brazil's high crime rates...

Nord Stream 2 is a gas pipeline mega-project between Germany and Russia that has been a subject of contention for politicians from Europe and the United States. Opponents refer to the Nord Stream 2 as a harmful political project while advocates claim that it is necessary for European energy security...

The US government published a report delineating a strategy to reduce reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals such as rare earth elements. Rare earth elements (REEs) are...

Increased electricity coverage of the African continent has been an ambitious long-term goal. In 2016, only about 43% of the population in Africa had access to electricity. Estimates calculate that...

On May 24th, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) and the Chinese Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) announced a joint takeover of the city bank Baoshang Bank for one year, due to what the government says is serious credit risk associated with the bank’s funding. This is the...

Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena alarmed Western media when he expressed admiration for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s shoot-to-kill drug policy. At a state banquet in Manila on January 16, 2019, President Sirisena praised Duterte’s war on drugs as an...

In April 2019, the Council of the European Union voted in favor of adopting the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market as European Union (EU) law. The copyright directive entered into force on June 6, 2019. EU member states now have to convert the new legislation into domestic law by...