US Republicans Turn Muslim Identity Into A 2026 Campaign Battleground

US Republican party candidates are increasingly making Islam and Muslim identity part of their campaign messaging ahead of the 2026 United States midterm elections, turning questions about terrorism, national security, religion and political loyalty into electoral issues. The pattern is visible in attacks on Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim Democrat running for the Senate in Michigan,…

US-China AI Rivalry Creates An Urgent Case For Safety Talks

The United States and China are preparing to open a new channel on artificial intelligence safety at a moment when the technology is becoming a national security issue as much as an economic one. The proposed discussions, expected around mid-September, would be the first official bilateral talks focused exclusively on AI safety since Donald Trump…

China’s Factory Recovery Struggles Against Weak Domestic Demand

China’s manufacturing sector improved in August, but the recovery remained too weak to pull factory activity back into expansion. The official manufacturing purchasing managers index rose to 49.8 from 49.2 in July, beating market expectations but remaining below the 50 threshold that separates expansion from contraction. The result marked a second consecutive month of contraction…

Hormuz Shock Pushes Europe and Asia Toward Renewable Energy

The disruption of energy supplies caused by the war involving Iran is giving governments in Europe and Asia a stronger economic reason to accelerate renewable energy investment. The immediate concern is not climate policy but energy security: dependence on imported oil and natural gas has exposed major economies to sharp price increases and supply risks…

Iran-Oman Hormuz Talks Stall Over Control and US Conditions: Iranian Sources

Iran and Oman are still negotiating the details of a proposed arrangement for the Strait of Hormuz, exposing the gap between political declarations of progress and the practical conditions required to restore normal shipping. A senior Iranian source has said that no final agreement has been reached, despite the Revolutionary Guards previously claiming that Tehran…

AI Model Distillation Fuels US-China Battle Over AI Ownership

Artificial intelligence model distillation has emerged as one of the most contentious issues in the growing technology rivalry between the United States and China, transforming a long-established machine learning technique into a debate over intellectual property, commercial rights and national security. The dispute is not centred on whether model distillation itself is technically legitimate. Instead,…