Opinion

  Clive Crook The Financial Times’s Gideon Rachman says he thinks Brexit won’t happen. The referendum result doesn’t mean that much, he argues. Any long-term observer of the EU should be familiar with the shock referendum result. In 1992 the Danes voted to reject the Maastricht treaty. The Irish voted to reject both the Nice treaty in 2001 and the ...

In a service to all South China Sea watchers, the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) announced that its award in Philippines v. China will be announced on July 12. For the outgoing Aquino administration in the Philippines–the initiator of the arbitration–the award has come a little too late. But, for Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines’ new president, who’s sent mixed signals ...

  Michael Reilly SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Taiwan’s trade figures with China should not make comfortable reading for any Taiwanese legislator or policymaker. True, between 2008 and 2015, China’s imports from Taiwan increased by almost 40 percent, vindication, presumably, in Kuomintang (KMT) eyes of Ma Ying-jeou’s cross-straits policy. But that growth pales into near insignificance against the 300 percent plus ...

Catherine Putz SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS After seven months of stalled relations–barbed comments and sanctions–Russia and Turkey may be moving toward a rapprochement. On Monday, according to the Russians, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent a letter “in which the Turkish President expressed his desire to settle the situation concerning the downing of a Russian military aircraft.” In the letter, ...

  Financial markets are still trying to make sense of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and almost everyone is wringing their hands over what it all means — popular anger at elites, an eruption of racism and xenophobia, the collapse of the liberal world order, the resurgence of English nationalism. The uncomfortable truth is that it’s probably all ...

  Ankara’s move to thaw tensions with both Tel Aviv and Moscow could counter the negative impact of terrorist attacks on Turkey’s tourism and economy, and end its current isolation. Tuesday’s attack on Ataturk airport in Istanbul came just as Turkey is rebuilding relations with Israel and Russia. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s apology to Moscow prompted Russia’s President ...

    Mina Pollmann SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS On June 23, British voters signaled their interest in leaving the European Union. The Brexit vote sent the Japanese yen shooting up in value, as risk averse investors turned to this traditionally “safe” currency. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held an emergency meeting on Monday with the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and ...

    Overshadowed by the news of the British referendum on European Union (EU) membership held the same day, on June 23 Presidents Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj of Mongolia signed a trilateral economic partnership agreement in Tashkent, Uzbekistan during the 11th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The agreement consists of 32 ...

  “See that little stream? We could walk to it in two minutes. It took the British a month to walk to it — a whole empire walking very slowly, dying in front and pushing forward behind.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald, “Tender Is The Night” WASHINGTON The walk began at 7:30 a.m., July 1, 1916, when British infantry advanced towards German ...

  Adam Minter A new list of the world’s 500 fastest supercomputers suggests that China might be speeding past the U.S. in the race for technological supremacy. China now holds the two top spots, and placed a total of 167 machines on the list. The U.S. had only 165 on the list, with its fastest placing a very distant third. ...