Geopolitics & Policy
Geopolitics & Policy news — Tuesday 29 September 2026
45 stories from 7 sources, every one in English. Each links to its publisher.
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Ex-American Idol singer Caleb Flynn convicted of fatally shooting his wife
South China Morning Post Tech
A former Ohio music pastor who once appeared on American Idol was convicted of murder on Tuesday in the killing of his wife while he was having an affair. Prosecutors said Caleb Flynn, 40, staged a home invasion in February after shooting…
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Morocco’s king appoints El Mansouri as first woman prime minister
South China Morning Post Tech
King Mohammed VI appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri on Tuesday as Morocco’s first woman prime minister after her liberal-centrist party came out on top in a September 23 parliamentary election, the royal palace said. The king asked El…
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Man dragged to death by New York subway train after bag gets caught in door
South China Morning Post Tech
A man was dragged to death by a New York subway train when a bag he was carrying got stuck in the door during the Monday evening rush hour commute, police said. Yaw Boahene, 57, was exiting the train at a Brooklyn subway station at around…
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America’s foreign policy of coercion must end
South China Morning Post Tech
If you want to understand how Washington exercises power in the world, watch what it does when its closest allies try to deepen ties with each other. When EU chief Ursula von der Leyen proposed making Canada the European Union’s first-ever…
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China’s AI agents can lie and scheme – just like their US rivals
CSET Georgetown
CSET’s Colin Shea-Blymyer shared his expert insight in an article published by Reuters . The article examines the development of AI in China and the growing challenges and risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems. These…
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OpenAI stops training latests models, citing safety concerns
CSET Georgetown
CSET’s Helen Toner spoke with NPR’s Steve Inskeep about OpenAI’s decision to pause testing and training of its latest model amid safety concerns. To listen to the full interview, visit NPR . The post OpenAI stops training latests models…
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PM Burnham vows big shake-up for UK in high-risk political speech
South China Morning Post Tech
New British Prime Minister Andy Burnham set out a sweeping political vision on Tuesday, pledging to give Britain “a new social contract for the 21st century”, reform the country’s electoral system and reset its relationship with its…
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Uzbekistan’s Death Penalty Debate Returns After Child Abuse Case
The debate over the death penalty is back in Uzbekistan, this time involving the country’s most senior officials.
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Mystery over UK airbase scare as police find petrol, not explosives
South China Morning Post Tech
A UK probe into a suspected bomb plot at an airbase used by the United States was mired in confusion Tuesday, as police said no explosives but a “quantity of petrol” was found in vehicles seized nearby. Police were called to the Royal Air…
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87-year-old woman whose eviction sparked protests in Spain is returning home
South China Morning Post Tech
Spain’s coalition government said it had agreed on proposals including banning evictions until 2030 to address the country’s housing crisis, as the 87-year-old woman whose forced removal last week triggered protests accepted an offer to…
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Eiffel Tower chief stepping down over removal of women staff for Hindu group’s visit
South China Morning Post Tech
The operating company that runs the Eiffel Tower said on Tuesday its chief would step down at the end of this year in the wake of a controversy over the removal of women staff during a visit by a Hindu religious group. Patrick Branco…
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What Will Hegseth’s “State of the Force” Reprise Reveal?
War on the Rocks
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is expected to convene a high-profile meeting of military personnel for a “State of the Force” address this week. Will it show the U.S. armed forces as healthy? The answer may depend on how the audience…
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US consumer confidence sinks to 12-year low over inflation, stagnant wages
South China Morning Post Tech
Americans’ confidence in the economy sank to the lowest level in more than a decade this month as prices remain elevated and wages stagnate amid the ongoing Iran war. The Conference Board said Tuesday that its consumer confidence index…
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Taiwan Should Be Kept Off the Negotiating Table
The fact that Trump didn’t give anything new away on Taiwan shouldn’t obscure how much ground he has already conceded to Xi.
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Why Are China and Japan Still So Focused on the ‘Enemy State Clauses’ of the UN Charter?
The UNGA voted to delete those sections 20 years ago. But the issue has acquired renewed political significance as Sino-Japanese relations have deteriorated.
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Kyrgyz Presidential Election Set for January 2027, Candidates Start to Step Forward
So far, incumbent President Sadyr Japarov and Omurbek Suvanaliev – a politician and former minister of internal affairs – have announced their intentions to run.
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Israel’s Gaza air strike kills Hamas commander behind October 7, 2023 attack
South China Morning Post Tech
An Israeli air strike killed the head of Hamas’ armed wing in north Gaza on Tuesday, officials on both sides said, with the militant group describing him as a leader of the October 7, 2023 attack that precipitated war in the Palestinian…
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After the Flood, Can China, Nepal, and India Move From Earth Observation to Regional Preparedness?
A blueprint for building resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalaya.
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Pakistan’s Escalating Response to Cross-Border Terrorism
The recurring clashes represent the failure of months of diplomacy and external mediation. Where does the Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship go from here?
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How years of thin investment have stalled Germany’s rail network as China’s speeds ahead
South China Morning Post Tech
Wang Xixi still remembers her first experience with Germany’s trains 21 years ago. It left her with a question: how could a railway be so empty, clean and punctual, and still make money? The carriages were bright, the toilets almost…
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What Did Chinese Analysts Think of the Trump-Xi Summit?
To some, Trump's hospitality was “historic.” To others, it was an attempt to “lull China into a false sense of security.”
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Rahul Bajoria, Bank of America Chief Economist, on India’s Manufacturing Ambitions
Why has India's manufacturing sector has remained stuck at around 15 percent of GDP despite decades of rapid growth?
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Why Has the Maldives Inserted Itself Into the Chagos Sovereignty Dispute?
Muizzu has promised to submit evidence supporting the Maldives’ claim to Chagos to relevant international bodies.
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What trap? US-China relations show conflict is far from inevitable
South China Morning Post Tech
For a decade, foreign policy circles have treated war between the United States and China as something close to destiny. The theory has a fancy, fashionable name borrowed from ancient Greece: the “Thucydides Trap” – the idea that a rising…
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US Republicans Weren’t Happy With Trump’s Hosting of Xi
A spate of Republican senators took umbrage at Trump's reception of “a brutal, unelected, and oppressive dictator.”
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The Daily Roundup
The Wire China
September 29th, 2026 | Welcome to The Wire’s daily news roundup. Each day, our staff gathers the top China business, finance, and economics headlines from a selection of the world’s leading news organizations. The post The Daily Roundup…
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Pakistan and Terrorism: When the Tables Turn
Islamabad cannot use its own people’s suffering to erase its record of supporting forces that have devastated lives in other countries.
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Estonia blames Russia for arson attack on company supplying vehicles to Ukraine
South China Morning Post Tech
Estonian authorities said on Tuesday they had concluded that an arson attack in mid-August on a defence company that provides military vehicles to Ukraine was an act of sabotage commissioned by Russian security services. Foreign Minister…
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India-Europe trade corridor gets Trump’s backing, but can IMEC survive war?
South China Morning Post Tech
US President Donald Trump’s recent endorsement of a trade corridor connecting India to Europe via the Middle East has renewed focus on the three-year-old project, but analysts warn it must expand to withstand ongoing geopolitical…
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My Beautiful Dark Twisted State Dinner
ChinaTalk
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The open-source AI platforms vying to become China’s Hugging Face
Rest of World
For Beijing, managing AI requires walking a razor’s edge: seal off domestic internet users from foreign influence, but keep China’s top developers linked to the global cutting edge. When Chinese... © Rest of World/iStock
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It’s the end of the world – and I don’t feel fine
South China Morning Post Tech
Armageddon is what will happen when billionaires, or even trillionaires, are given free rein. Could this be the final outcome of late-stage American capitalism and democracy? Imagine a human-extinction event: a rogue artificial…
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China’s AI Safety Catch-Up Is Hiding in Plain Sight
The Wire China
Current debates in the West about China’s approach to governing the technology ignore changes under way post-DeepSeek and Mythos. The post China’s AI Safety Catch-Up Is Hiding in Plain Sight appeared first on The Wire China .
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The Unhedgeable Bet: What the Future Combat Systems Can Teach Us About Acquisition
War on the Rocks
The Pentagon describes Golden Dome for America as a “system of systems,” an integrated air and missile defense architecture that combines space-based sensors, orbital interceptors, ground systems, and a command network designed to defeat…
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Beijing and Berlin ‘exchanged opinions’ amid reported plan to shut China out of EU market
South China Morning Post Tech
Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao held a video call with German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche on Monday, just over a week before the next round of trade talks between Beijing and Brussels, amid reports that Germany and France are…
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The Discipline of Refusal: Constitutional Concerns About Lawful Orders in the U.S. Military
War on the Rocks
Military doctrine gives officers a clear rule for manifestly unlawful orders: Refuse them. It offers no comparable rule when lawful action appears to threaten the constitutional structure the military serves. The first response is neither…
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The Manhattan Project Mindset: How Nuclear Analogies Are Steering AI Policy Off Course
War on the Rocks
Analogies for artificial intelligence abound. In recent years, analysts have likened the development of AI to the advent of electricity, the Industrial Revolution, contact with extraterrestrials, and at least fifty other things. One…
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US forces set to complete withdrawal from Iraq after 2 decades
South China Morning Post Tech
US forces are set to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by Wednesday, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of…
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Living Under a Lethal Sky: Myanmar’s Arakan on Edge as Military Airstrikes on Civilians Grow
Airstrikes are no longer intermittent dangers as they were two years ago, but a constant hazard. They are part of the people’s daily lives, woven into their collective consciousness.
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South Korean Submarines Could Save Australia From the AUKUS Shambles
Could the conventionally-powered KSS-III sub offer a more affordable and timely alternative to the planned nuclear-powered fleet?
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Vietnam Confirms Arrest of Viet Tan Activists Reported Missing in Cambodia
Rights groups claim that Nguyen Duc Thuan and Tran Hiep were abducted in Cambodia, in line with a pattern of growing transnational repression by the Vietnamese state.
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The Global Data Center Boom Has Arrived in Southeast Asia
Will the region's demand for artificial intelligence services justify the enormous outlays of money and resources?
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US prosecutors reopen case of alleged frat house gang rape at Cornell University
South China Morning Post Tech
US prosecutors reopened an investigation Monday into an alleged gang rape at Cornell University following claims the elite college failed to properly punish the men involved. The alleged victim said in a civil lawsuit this month she was…
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Elderly in-laws arrested in California shooting death of New York Times employee
South China Morning Post Tech
A couple in their late 70s gunned down their son-in-law in a California city park over the weekend, authorities said, and court documents showed the victim had been in a bitter custody dispute with their daughter. Jonathan McKinsey, a…
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Thailand’s Constitutional Court Dismisses Petition Seeking Annulment of General Election
The petition concerned the use of barcodes and QR codes on ballot papers, which some claimed could breach constitutional requirements for secret voting.